


Jigsaw Reborn

by AidanTheCrab



Category: Daredevil (TV), Iron Fist (TV), Jessica Jones (TV), Luke Cage (TV), The Punisher (TV 2017), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Angst, BAMF Midoriya Izuku, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Fluff, I'm Bad At Tagging, Suicidal Midoriya Izuku, Suicidal Thoughts, Vigilante Midoriya Izuku
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:54:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 29,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23265031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AidanTheCrab/pseuds/AidanTheCrab
Summary: After trying to end his life; Izuku wakes up from a five month coma confused, scarred, and unable to remember what brought him there. After a year of being trapped in the hospital, He's had enough, in an act of anger and spite, he breaks out of the hospital. If he's not allowed to be a hero, he'll just become the next best thing
Relationships: Jirou Kyouka/Uraraka Ochako, Kayama Nemuri | Midnight/Midoriya Inko, Midoriya Izuku/Tokage Setsuna
Comments: 32
Kudos: 142





	1. Rebirth

"HEY I'M TALKING TO YOU, USELESS DEKU!" A blonde boy yelled at another boy with wild green hair. The blonde boy held a notebook in one hand while his other hand held the green haired boy against a brick wall.

"Don't even think of applying to U.A, or else." The blonde whispered as the notebook in his hand went up in flames and his other hand released the greenette from the wall, allowing him to fall into the ground coughing and wheezing.

"If you really want a quirk, why don't you take a dive out of a window and pray you get one in your next life?"

That question had done it, it had done what Katsuki Bakugou had prayed for years for. It broke Izuku Midoriya's resolve.

Izuku walked home with clouded eyes and a hole in his heart, he was so distracted by Katsuki's words that he didn't realize where he was going until he ran straight into a building that was seemingly made of glass.

He stumbled back, cradling his bleeding nose, and gazed up at the building he had just ran into: it was some random hero agency, Izuku froze as he stared at the building's multitude of large windows.

'Take a dive out of a window and pray you get one in the next life.'

'Maybe he's right, maybe I should just end it all, Mom would probably be a lot happier when she doesn't have to care for me anymore, and Kacchan will be happy without me in his way to become a hero.' Izuku thought to himself.

Izuku felt a dainty hand fall down on his left shoulder; a woman with long and ruffled dark hair, ocean blue eyes, a large pair of red glasses, as well as a small mole under her left eye.

"Hey, you doin' ok sweetie?" The pro-heroine Midnight asked with a concerned frown on her face.

"Of course I am. What would make you think I'm not?" Izuku asked in a whisper, his gaze still fixated on the building.

"Because I just heard you talking about ending your life." Midnight answered.

Izuku sighed "I said everything out loud, didn't I?"

"You kinda did Hun'. So, why don't you follow me, we'll get you checked into a hospital and have a professional get you sorted, yeah?" Midnight began to gently drag him away from the building.

Another hand clasped down on his other shoulder "Are you really gonna just stand there while she drags you off to throw you off in the looney bin? You're more of a wimp than I thought!" Katsuki yelled.

"What are you doing here Kacchan?" Izuku asked low enough so that Midnight couldn't hear him.

"Oh, I'm not Katsuki, I'm simply a manifestation of your self-hate, depression, rage, and anxiety. All rolled up and personified into the one person who can instill all of these emotions the best. She can't see me by the way, this is all in that fucked up mind of yours" Katsuki answered.

Izuku shivered as he stared at the being that only he could perceive.

"You said you wanted to end it all, didn't you? Then why are you letting her stop you, huh? Ask yourself; do you really want to be thrown in some mental hospital, have a bunch of random doctors pick your brain and load you up with pills, then release you back into the world that's just gonna kick you right back down?" The fake Katsuki asked.

Izuku stood emotionless as Midnight continued to pull him away, this only seemed to anger his mental projection.

"WHAT'S IT GONNA BE SHITSTAIN?!" The shout was like a trigger word to the green-haired boy, as he violently shrugged the hand off of his shoulder and bolted back through the entrance of the building.

Izuku slowed his pace as he entered the agency to keep suspicion off of himself, but he was still, at the very least, briskly jogging.

"You see that guy?" The fake Katsuki asked while pointing at a man wearing a dark blue security jacket guarding the door to the stairwell.

"W-what about him?"

"He's got a gun tucked away in his jacket. Knock him down and take it."

"That's impossible, guns were outlawed decades ago." Izuku argued with himself.

"Just because they were outlawed doesn't mean that you can't get them. Notice how his eyes keep shifting, and how he keeps reaching into his jacket. It's most likely a handgun, now do what I said, and take it." Izuku's own analyst skills clearly extended to this mental projection as well.

Adrenaline rushed through Izuku's body as he clenched his fists and continued walking towards the guard.

"Authorized personnel only beyond this point kid." The man spoke while holding his hand out to block Izuku from going any further.

With the adrenaline pumping through his veins, Izuku stopped thinking straight, all he could focus on was his fate, and he was determined to move anyone who got in his way. Izuku wound back his fist and launched it across the jaw of the guard, when he fell to the floor Izuku immediately reached inside of the jacket and stole the gun away from the man.

Despite being a small weapon, the pistol felt like a cinder block in his hands. But it also felt natural, comfortable, like it was meant for him to hold. 

Izuku felt the fake Katsuki lay his hand down on his shoulder again, and he heard him chuckle "It'd be so easy to shoot him dead right now." He growled.

Izuku shook his head of the thought and busted into the stairwell, charging up the stairs faster than he had ever moved before. Finally, after a minute of speedily climbing, he had made it to the fifth floor. Slamming his shoulder into the entrance door, he came out into a hallway lined with windows, and seemingly empty offices.

Katsuki walked in front of him with a scowl on his face "Well there it is, what are you waiting for? Isn't this what you wanted? Go ahead! JUMP!"

"Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet, be quiet!" Izuku yelled as he clutched his head and tears started to leak from his eyes.

"Hmph, shoulda known you couldn't do it. Still nothing but a worthless Deku. You're weak! YOU'LL ALWAYS BE WEAK!" Katsuki screamed.

Izuku screamed back and pointed the gun at the fake Katsuki.

Katsuki just smiled "What? You think you have the balls to pull that trigger? I think you forgot, but I'm basically you. I know everything about you, including the fact that you can't shoot me-"

BANG!

As the bullet tore through the mental projection's skull, it's scowl turned into a feral grin, before it's body faded out of Izuku's vision. Izuku let out a shaky breath, threw the gun aside, and turned his attention to the window at the end of the hall "Mom, I'm sorry." He whispered.

Izuku slowly walked down the hall, but eventually he picked up his pace a little bit, then a little bit more, and a little bit more, until he was sprinting down the hallway at full speed. His heart was pounding, sweat was cascading down his skin in huge rivulets, and his pupils were practically dilated to the size of a grain of sand. Izuku's leg slammed heavily against the ground and he slung himself into the window.

As he broke through the window, glass embedded itself deeply into his face, when he hit the road, he could feel every bone in his body shatter and break into pieces, his agony didn't stop there however. As he crashed against the asphalt, his momentum caused him to skid against the road, causing his entire face to rip up even more.

There Izuku lay, bloody, shredded, and broken on the street, taking in slow and raspy breaths. The last thing he did with his final few moments of consciousness, was turn his head to the window he jumped out of, only to see the fake Katsuki smiling in victory at Izuku's blood covered face.

\--Meanwhile, in New York.

A man wearing a gray long-sleeve shirt and a pair of black sweatpants was laying with his eyes closed on his bed, the man had a large bruise under his right orbital and his left eye was bruised as well.

The man's phone begins to ring from his right bedside table, he reaches over and stares at the caller ID for a few seconds before lifting the phone to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Curtis? Curtis I'm hurt. I'm hurt real bad." The voice on the other end immediately made Curtis shoot up from his bed.

"Where are you?" Curtis asked.

The person on the other end chuckled "Yeah, I'm bleeding all over your basement…  
I'm dying. I'm dying Curt', will you come?"

Curtis stayed silent, contemplating whether or not he should go and visit the man who used to be his friend.

The man in the basement seemed to be able to perceive the uncertainty coming from the other end "Ok promise me that you-you won't call the cops at least. Can you do that? ...Can you do that?"

Curtis drew in a deep breath before he spoke "I promise I won't call the cops."

"Look I know I probably don't deserve it after what I've done, but if you could find it in yourself to be a brother one late time, I don't want to die alone." The man pleaded, before Curtis heard the phone hang up.

\--

In a room lined with yellow tile, a man with very short black hair, a mangled face, and a short beard sat propped up against one of the walls, his hands, neck, and shirt were all covered in blood.

A door slams open and shut and the man called out "Curtis! Curtis here. I knew you'd come, I knew you'd-" the man stops when he realizes that it isn't Curtis.

Instead a man with semi-short black hair and a clean shaven face strolls through the door, his entire face bloody and bruised, as if he had gone on a killing spree.

"Frankie." The man said, surprised. He then began to chuckle before he was forced to stop by the blood pooling in his mouth "You don't look so good. Of course it's you, I shoulda known. If I'm gonna be with someone, I'm happy that it's you."

Frank simply stared at him, not saying a word, just glaring.

The man sniffled before he looked back up at the other black haired man "Frank, whatever I've done I'm-"

Frank quickly pulled out a pistol with a silencer on it and shot the other man in the chest two times, he holstered the gun and slowly walked out of the building.

\--

It was just pure white, that was all Izuku could see at this point. Just a white, nebulous void. He was laying on the floor, wearing some kind of tuxedo with a green tie.

"Where am I?" Izuku asked himself.

"Purgatory, I think." A Brooklyn accented voice said from behind him.

Izuku whirled around to face to source of the voice; it came from a man, most likely in his thirties, with incredibly short black hair, a beard, and an incredibly handsome face, he was wearing a tuxedo as well but his tie was black instead of green like Izuku.

"Where?!" Izuku yelled.

"Guess the universe is trying to decide if we're dead or not." The man extended his hand and pulled Izuku up to his feet "Billy Russo."

"Izuku Midoriya." Izuku greeted back "....How are we understanding each other right now?"

"Are you not speaking English?" Billy asked.

"No. Are you not speaking Japanese?" Izuku asked back.

"Huh, weird. Well, we are sitting in a void so I guess anything's possible at this point." Billy shrugged.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, just looking around at their surroundings, not that there was much to look at in the first place.

After a while Billy clearly got bored of the silence and turned to his green haired companion "So, what brought you here?"

Izuku sighed and hung his head low "It all started when I was diagnosed as quirkless, I wanted nothing more than to be a hero. But everybody around me, even my own mother, told me no. I think...that was the first chip away at my resolve."

"What a coincidence, I didn't get one either, hell I'm pretty sure it was one of the reasons my parents didn't stick around." Billy told him.

"Then I told my friend Kacchan about it, he wasn't happy about it. At first it was just mean names and excluding me from certain things, but then as we got to middle school he began to hit me, and by highschool he began to incorporate his quirk in as well. Of course because he was the strongest kid in Aldera nobody wanted to go against him, much less try and help me, even the teachers were scared of him." Izuku explained.

"And then?" The black haired man asked.

"I got sick of everything. Kacchan told me to take a dive out of a window, and I did." The boy admitted.

"That sucks kid, that sucks a whole lot, but did you ever fight back?" Billy questioned.

"There wasn't a point, he's so much stronger than me. It'd just end with me more hurt than usual." Izuku answered.

"How old are you, kid?"

"Seventeen." Izuku said.

"So you went most of your life just being a doormat for everyone around you who was even slightly more powerful?" Billy asked ludicrously.

"Can we change the subject?" Izuku pleaded.

"Fine, we can talk about anything." The short haired man said.

"What got you here?"

"Anything but that."

"I told you my tragic backstory, why don't you tell me your's?" Izuku joked.

"All you need to know, is that I got greedy, and brought a one man army after me as a result." Billy said.

Suddenly Izuku's hand began to grow fuzzy and faded, causing him to help in surprise and fall to the ground "Mr. Russo what's happening?"

"I guess your fate was decided." Billy shrugged.

"But what about you?" Izuku asked, concerned for the older man. More of Izuku's body began to fade from sight.

Billy held up his own hand to reveal that it too was fading "I think mine was too."

Just before Izuku fully faded away, Billy smiled and spoke once more "Hey kid, if you wake up, don't let anyone walk on you anymore. Prove them wrong and make somethin' of yourself."

\--

At this point, Inko couldn't even hear the heart rate monitor anymore. She knew that her baby's heart was still beating, she could see the machine clearly.

Inko had spent a majority of these last five months in the hospital watching over her baby boy's broken form, so after a while, the fear of hearing the heart rate monitor flatline caused her brain to tune it out completely.

The doctors had finally taken most of the bandages off of his face but his face was still barely recognizable. Inko would cry if she had any tears left. Her tear ducts had dried up by the third month that Izuku was in the hospital.

She knew that the doctors didn't want her to touch Izuku, but she lurched forward and took hold of Izuku's hand anyway. As she slowly rubbed her thumb over one of the scars on his hand, she noticed that the heart rate monitor was doing something weird, for the first time in months she allowed herself to listen to the machine. It was beeping faster and louder than she'd ever seen or heard before.

Izuku's body began to convulse violently on the bed, almost as though he was having some sort of heart attack. Inko quickly backed up and began to rapidly hit the button to alert the nurses that something was happening, when she heard it.

One long beep, and the sound of Izuku laying perfectly still.

She dropped the remote and covered her mouth with both hands to keep her from letting out a horrid scream, tears began to pour out of her eyes like water from a broken dam. Her baby, the boy she raised all on her own, the boy who had given her the best seventeen years of her life, despite everything she tried, was dead.

Beep

Inko turned around just in time to see her baby boy arch his back upwards and loudly take in a deep breath of air.

\--1 year later

In Musutafu general hospital, an eighteen year old boy with a long wild mop of green hair laid strapped down to a hospital bed, he was wearing sweatpants, a forest green hoodie, and a pair of cotton socks. On his face was a green face mask, with black lines criss-crossing all over it, meant to resemble cracks, as well as two large black jagged circles around the eyes.

All of the sudden, the door to his hospital room burst open and a young woman, the same age as the boy, walked in pushing a metal cart in front of her. She was wearing a pair of dark blue hospital scrubs, she had long green hair that was the same shade of green as the boy on the bed, dark green eyes, and a wide grin that showed off her sharp teeth.

"Rise and shine prisoner! Your warden will be here soon so you should eat up while you can!" Setsuna Tokage joked as she entered the room and placed a plate of bland hospital food on the boy's bedside table.

"Y'know, you saying that doesn't make me anymore happy to be here." Izuku Midoriya smirked from behind the mask.

"Oh hush, you know that you love it when I do that." Setsuna smiled.

"So how long until the doctor is here, Tokage?" Izuku asked the orderly.

"Hey what's with all this Tokage non-sense, Izuku? I told you to call me Setsuna." The shorter girl scolded.

"Sorry." Izuku laughed. Setsuna chuckled with him, before her face fell slightly and her small hands reached for the mask covering Izuku's face.

Izuku gave an almost inaudible gasp of surprise as he leaned away from her hand, which caused her to retract her hand, place both of them on her hips on her hand and angrily huff.

"We've been over this already, haven't we?"

"They're ugly." Izuku whispered.

"They're not!" Setsuna argued "Now I don't know what that lady is teaching you about yourself, but you should be wearing your scars proudly. It lets people know that you're strong, that you survived something awful and are still standing without an issue."

Izuku stayed backed away from her for a few seconds before moved back and allowed her to gently take the mask from his face.

All over Izuku's face were very visible scars, a few on his forehead, a few on his cheeks, one bridging over his nose, one on his right temple, and a particularly long and nasty one on the left side of his cheek where one of the glass shards had cut all the way through.

"Hey, there's that handsome face!" 

Setsuna's face went from smiling, to confused, her hands tilted Izuku's head forward before she yanked out a long blue comb from inside his hair "Did that one nurse attempt to tame that mess again?" She smirked while using the comb to gesture to his mop of hair.

Izuku chuckled from his spot on the bed "She can't stand my hair."

Setsuna's face fell once again as she sat down in the chair behind her and leaned closer to Izuku "You probably heard about it by now but in a few weeks I'm gonna be taking the entrance exam, and since I got in on recommendation the chance for me getting in is a bit greater than normal. If I do get in, I'm not gonna be able to see you as often."

"I know, I heard one of the nurses talking about it from outside my room, I think they wanted me to know about it actually." Izuku frowned.

"Ugh, was it that red-headed one who ties his hair up in a man bun? I'm convinced that jerk is pure evil." Setsuna scowled.

'He probably just doesn't like the fact that you're my one source of happiness.' Izuku thought to himself as he recalled the man's cold demeanor and clear dislike for him.

"But hey, don't get so down, who knows I might not even get in, then I can-"

"We both know you're gonna get in, and even if you don't get into U.A., I think it'd be better for you to become a hero than stay here with me." Izuku cut her off.

"Hey, you can't say stuff about yourself like that." Setsuna said.

"Sorry, but you deserve to become a hero, you've worked too hard to not." Izuku said as he gave her a reassuring smile.

"Are you sure?" The green haired girl asked.

"Positive." The green haired boy answered.

The two stood still just sitting there and smiling at each other, before Izuku cringed and scrunched up his face in agony as he experienced another splintering headache. These had become a regular thing since Izuku woke up from his five month coma, and although they had lessened in their frequency, they still hurt like hell.

Fortunately, Setsuna had seen this happen enough to remember to bring the headache medicine, and to know that she hated seeing this happen to him. Her hands immediately separated from his body, one going for the cup with the pills inside, and the other going for the cup of water. Her quirk, Lizard Tail Splitter, allowed her to do things like separating and controlling her body parts with relative ease.

Setsuna quickly ripped his arms free of the straps and allowed him to dump the pills and water into his mouth, sighing in relief as the medicine acted quickly.

Setsuna growled angrily "I don't even know why they keep you in those things, like you're some kind of prisoner!" She ranted.

"You know exactly why we have to keep those restraints on him." A sophisticated feminine voice called out from behind her. Setsuna whirled around to see a woman with long black hair wearing a white blouse, a long dark red skirt with matching high-heels standing in the doorway with a clipboard in hand.

Setsuna huffed and crossed her arms over her chest "Doesn't mean I like those reasons."

"Ms. Tokage would you kindly take your leave? This therapy session is just between Izuku and me." The doctor stated.

The green haired girl huffed once more and turned back to Izuku "I'll be back to see you later, don't let Dr. Yaoyorozu drive you crazy while I'm gone." She had whispered that last part so just Izuku could hear.

"So Izuku, how has your morning been so far?" Dr. Yaoyorozu asked after Setsuna had left.

"Was fine until you got here." Izuku said to himself.

"What was that?"

"It's been fine."

"Well, since the orderly already took your arm restraints off, we might as well remove these ones off as well." She said as she ripped his legs free of the leather straps.

"So, for today's session I'd like for you to tell me everything you can remember from your previous life, can you do that for me?" The doctor asked.

Izuku sighed and rolled his eyes, this was gonna be another long and useless session. These therapy sessions alone were enough to make him want to break out.

In fact, that sounded like a good idea.


	2. Breakout

"So why don't you start from the beginning for me?"

"I already told you countless times that I don't remember anything from when I was fourteen to when I woke up. It's all just a blur," Izuku told the doctor, somewhat rudely.

"And I already told  _ you  _ that I'm required to ask these questions. Have you had any more nightmares recently?" Dr. Yaoyorozu asked

"Of course I have. Can't go one night without them," Izuku said as he turned away from her.

"I would like you to tell me about these nightmares." Dr. Yaoyorozu saw that he was about to argue with her, so she cut him off before he could, "Just humor me, please?"

Izuku sighed, before he relented to the doctor "It's the same thing every time, there's a bunch of loud bangs, flashing lights, and fire, almost like explosions. And then they stop but it feels like every inch of my skin is being stabbed with needles over and over and over again. Then the explosions start again, but this time, a gruff voice is laughing at me, and that's when I wake up. Every. Single. Time."

"Thank you for telling me that. Just put your trust in me, and I will help you," The doctor said as she scribbled something down onto her clipboard.

"Yeah, right," Izuku sarcastically mumbled.

"What was that?" 

"How do you expect me to think that you're helping me when we've been doing this daily for the past ten months, and I'm still at square one," Izuku seethed.

"These things take patience," Dr. Yaoyorozu told him.

"I don't want to be patient! All that stuff is easy for you to say, you're not the one who has to deal with these nightmares! You're not the one who has to deal with these splitting fucking headaches! I'm tired of going around in circles, I'm tired of being this way! I still don't know what happened to me or who did this! You said you were gonna make me better! WHY WON'T YOU HELP ME!" Izuku screamed at the onyx-eyed woman.

It was at this point that two orderlies burst through the door and attempted to restrain him back into his bed. But Izuku was sick of everything that this hospital had given him, sick of the medication, sick of the therapy, sick of the condescending smiles from the doctors, and nurses, and orderlies, the only good thing that had come out of this whole ordeal was about to leave his life forever, so what reason did he have to stay?

One swift punch was enough to send one of the orderlies to the ground, and when the other one attempted to grab him, Izuku grabbed him by the wrist and used his other hand to begin pushing his elbow in the way that it wasn't supposed to bend.

Izuku was by no means the scrawny kid he was a year ago, even after his muscles recovered from atrophy he continued to do physical therapy, which had allowed him to build up a healthy amount of muscle. Izuku grunted as he doubled his efforts and finally snapped the man's arm.

Izuku sighed deeply before he reached for his mask and slipped it over his face, as well as the hood of his jacket, before turning to the black-haired doctor.

"You're gonna get me out of here."

The woman quickly nodded and allowed Izuku to roughly grab her by the arm to prevent her from running away.

It was a couple minutes into walking the halls, they came across a door that would only open with keycard access, Dr. Yaoyorozu was about to open it for them when the door was thrown open and multiple orderlies rushed through, heading in the direction of Izuku's room.

It was another ten minutes before Izuku burst out into the open air of the hospital courtyard, the doctor running out right behind him.

"Wait, please!" The doctor cried out as she grabbed him by the wrist "Let me help you, I can fix you!"

Izuku let his gaze wander to where Setsuna was sitting at a stone table, eating lunch and laughing with a few of the other orderlies.

His face hardened and he turned back to the doctor, yanking the mask off of his face and shoving it into the hands of the woman in front of him.

"You can't fix this," he said before running as far away as he could.

  
  


**\-- a few hours later.**

  
  


"Oh your majesty! Come and get your...food?" Setsuna took a look around the room and noticed the police officers, the therapist standing in the corner with a solemn look on her face, as well as the empty bed which Izuku was supposed to be in.

"Where is Izuku?" she asked.

"Ma'am you're not allowed to be in here," one of the police officers tried to say, but was cut off by the doctor.

"Leave her. She's not going to be of any trouble."

"Where is Izuku?!" Setsuna asked once more, this time with a little bit more anger behind it.

"He escaped not too long ago. And he used me to do so," Dr. Yaoyorozu explained.

"What?! No. No you're lying why would he…?"

"I assure you that I am telling the truth, Izuku is...an unpredictable person. He finished his physical therapy in five months, far faster than any of us had ever expected, but over the course of ten months we made no progress on his psyche at all. However, if I'm being honest I'm surprised that it took him a year to decide to get out on his own. Truly a capricious patient," the doctor commented.

"Would you stop talking about him like a science experiment! Izuku is a real person, and he's out there all on his own with no-one to help him if something happens, aren't you the slightest bit worried about what would happen if he had another one of those migraines without that medication?" Setsuna was getting more angry by the second at the doctor's careless behavior, like she didn't care if Izuku got himself hurt at all.

"I try not to get too attached to my patients," Dr. Yaoyorozu stated simply.

Setsuna sucked in a shaky breath and glared at the doctor "You're a heartless bitch," she spat. She then turned her attention to the mask that was in her hand. Izuku's mask.

"Give me this." Setsuna scowled as she snatched the mask from within Dr. Yaoyorozu's hand, and ran out of the hospital with a few tears leaking from her eyes, not even bothering to mark the end of her shift.

  
  


**\--**

  
  


Somewhere in Japan, a man with red hair stepped onto a train, wearing a black overcoat with no shirt, showing off his pale chest, a pair of slightly baggy camo pants, and black combat boots.

The man winked at a pair of women, who both responded with a sound of disgust, before he sat down next to a man wearing a dark green hoodie.

After a few minutes of doing nothing, the red haired man became curious and decided to peek at the other man's face, which was shrouded by a hood.

"Holy shit!" The man chuckled as he threw the hood off of the other man's head, revealing the man's scarred face.

"Jesus, did somebody stick your face in a blender?" the man asked.

After a few seconds of not responding, the man got angry and grabbed Izuku by the head and shook him a bit, "Hey freak, I'm talking to you. What's the matter, you lose your ability to speak when your face got all fucked up?"

The man continued to harass Izuku until the train pulled to a stop, he huffed and walked out of the train car. 

Izuku took a deep breath to calm himself, before following the man out of the train. He stalked the man from a distance, when he turned, Izuku turned. Eventually he went down an alley that led to a large empty space between buildings and Izuku followed him, realizing that the man had stopped and pulled something from out of his overcoat.

The man whirled around, brandishing a silver hatchet with a black handle.

"Now I don't know why you're following me, Scar-face. But if you don't stop, then that ugly mug of yours will get a lot worse."

Izuku quickly grabbed a trash can lid and threw it like a frisbee at the man's face, knocking him unconscious as soon as it made contact.

"You know, for someone who talks so much shit," Izuku began to swap the man's clothes for his own, leaving the man in a pair of sweatpants and nothing else, "you go down real easily."

As Izuku was about to leave, he noticed that the man's hatchet had been flung away when he was knocked out. He bent down and snatched the weapon up off of the ground, before he realized that he didn't have a place to put it. He then noticed that his new overcoat just so happened to have a piece of fabric stitched onto both sides that would make a perfect holster. 

Izuku slipped the hatchet into the right side of his jacket, allowing himself a moment to get used to the unbalance in weight, something that he would fix at another time, walked out of the alley and into the open and crowded streets, searching for a place to catch his breath for an hour or two.

Eventually, Izuku came across a multi-storied building with what looked to be a bar on the bottom floor. It was late enough in the day that the bar was open, but early enough that no-one was currently inside.

Izuku sat down at the bar, keeping his head down to avoid eye-contact with the bartender, who was busy cleaning glasses when he had asked Izuku if he had wanted a drink.

"Just water, please."

The bartender came back a few moments later with a glass of water that Izuku greedily drank down.

Izuku's attention was then captured by the TV screen above his head, which was playing the nightly news.

And the story was about him. Great.

"We advise you to take precaution if you do see the suspect, as police say that he is most likely armed and dangerous," the male host said, before he was cut off by his female counterpart laughing.

"Please, the only thing that a quirkless person could endanger is themselves," she said before laughing hysterically, she made a few more jokes about quirkless people before the bartender changed the channel to some American sitcom from the pre-quirk era.

"I'm so sick of those high and mighty assholes treating us like second class citizens!" he ranted as he threw the remote to the side.

"You're quirkless?" Izuku questioned.

"Yeah, is that a problem?" the bartender asked back.

"Not in the slightest."

It was then that the man behind the bar finally saw Izuku's face. 

"Shit," he whispered.

"You're not gonna tell anybody, right?"

"Why would I?"

Izuku smiled at the man, but when the door was kicked open, his head snapped back down to hide his face.

"Payment's due, Zen," a man holding a revolver said.

The other two men took up positions behind Izuku, one of them had their hand pointed at the bartender, smoke wafting off of his fingers, and the other one placed his hand close to the back of Izuku's head, Izuku felt something sharp poke his cranium.

"Look you can threaten me all you want, but leave my patrons alone," Zen commanded.

"The sooner you give us the money, the sooner we get out of your establishment. Unless, of course, you would no longer like to pay for our protection?" the leader asked.

"Protection from what?! You assholes are the ones I need protection from!" Zen snapped.

It was at this point when Izuku was beginning to get slightly nervous, stealthily taking his hatchet out from his jacket.

"Hmm, I see. Then I guess we have no choice but to end our partnership." The leader snapped his fingers and the man with the smoke quirk grinned, before he let out a scream of pain.

Izuku had spun around in his barstool and used his hatchet to slice through the man's chest, not deep enough to kill, but deep enough to hurt like a bitch, Izuku then used his free hand to punch the man to the ground. He swung his hatchet down and embedded it deep into the other man's leg, causing him to fall to one knee, which in turn gave Izuku the leverage to kick him unconscious.

Two loud gunshots were enough to scare Izuku behind the bar, hiding with Zen from the man with the revolver.

"Holy fuck kid that was amazing!" Zen praised.

"He's trying to move closer," Izuku said as he heard the heavy footsteps move towards them, he then spotted the bargun sitting in its holster. A plan began to slowly form in his head.

"When he gets over here, I want you to spray him with this. Try to hit him in the eyes," Izuku quietly instructed as he passed Zen the bargun.

"Now!" Izuku yelled as they both sprung up, Zen temporarily blinding the man with the bargun, allowing Izuku to jump over the bar and punch the man to the ground safely.

Grabbing the man by the collar of his shirt and slammed him against a wall, Izuku began to question him, "Who do you work for?"

"How do you know that I'm not the guy in charge?" Izuku slammed the man into the wall again, making sure that the man hit his head .

"Ow. Ok, it's this American guy named Jacob Summers. He's got a cryokinesis quirk, that's all I know about the guy," the man cried out. He was dropped by Izuku and quickly knocked out by a kick from the scarred boy.

"Zen, was it?" The bartender nodded, it was only now that Izuku got the chance to get a good look at him; incredibly short black hair, a goatee if the same color, and bright purple eyes that contrasted perfectly against his dark skin tone "I have a proposition for you; when that news lady began to make fun of people like us, I had an epiphany. I used to think that when I got older, all the discrimination would end, and I'd finally be accepted by society. But I realize now that I was wrong, that in order for them to see us as equals, we have to prove it."

"Are you suggesting that we become vigilantes, systematically proving that quirkless people are just as good as people without quirks by taking down the biggest and most dangerous gangs in the criminal underworld?" Zen asked.

”Surprisingly accurate, yes." Izuku answered.

"Cool, I'm in." The purple-eyed man grinned.

"Really, that easy?"

"Ain't got nothing better to do. And, like I said earlier, I'm tired of those high and mighty assholes treating us like second class citizens, I think it's time we showed them how strong we really are!" 

"I like your enthusiasm, do you know where this Jacob guy is?" Izuku questioned.

"Of course, he had me dragged down there so he could make me pay him to 'protect' me," Zen answered.

"Great, meet me back here at 2AM, then we're gonna deal with this Summers guy while causing as much noise as possible," Izuku said, before he exited the bar, there was something he needed to get before he could become a vigilante.

  
  


**\-- a few hours earlier, at U.A.**

  
  


Utterly depressed. That was the only thing that Nemuri Kayama, A.K.A. Midnight could use to describe how awful she felt. It had been over a year since she had failed to save that young boy, but she still couldn't get over it, seeing the boy’s broken body in her nightmares, blaming her for his bloody state.

"Nemuri, please don't tell me that you're still depressed about that kid? You did everything you could, it's irrational to still be upset about it," her friend, Shouta Aizawa, tried to tell her.

"You weren't there! You didn't see what happened! I had him. I was so close to being able to save him. But I failed." Nemuri allowed her head to fall into her hands.

"You need to take a nap, I don't think you've slept in the past few days," Hizashi Yamada said as he gently pushed her down to lay on the couch.

"Maybe you're right," Nemuri mumbled out as she fell asleep.

  
  


**\--**

  
  


Nemuri screamed as she shot up off of the couch in the teacher dorms, sweat coming down in rivulets off her skin.

"Another nightmare?" Shouta apathetically questioned.

The black haired woman nodded, causing Shouta to sigh.

"Here, watch something to take your mind off of everything," he said as he switched the TV on.

"In other news; a quirkless mental patient, Izuku Midoriya, broke out of the hospital earlier today." A picture of a young boy appeared in the top right corner of the screen. Wild and fluffy green hair, four freckles on each of his cheeks, and emerald green eyes.

Nemuri's hand clamped over her mouth to keep her from screaming, and Hizashi quickly turned the TV off.

'He got out of the hospital? What if he tries to kill himself again? What if he succeeds this time? I have to find him,' she thought frantically to herself.

Nemuri's phone suddenly buzzed, she had gotten a text from the principal of U.A, Nezu. He had texted her an address, along with the words 'I know I won't be able to stop you, so I might as well help you.'

"I need to go speak with someone," Nemuri said as she shot off of the couch and began to walk out of the teacher dorms.

"Did you forget that curfew is in ten minutes and you have the first shift making sure none of those degenerates leave their dorms?" Shouta asked.

"Oh shit, that's right. Mic can you please cover for me?" Nemuri pleaded.

"OKAY!" Hizashi said enthusiastically.

"Don't you dare cover for her!" Shouta warned.

"You got it!" 

"Hizashi." Nemuri glared at the blonde man.

"I'LL COVER FOR YOU!" Hizashi yelled.

"Mic!"

"Sorry Shouta but when she uses my first name I get a sense of dread that makes me do anything," the blonde man whispered.

  
  


**\--**

  
  


"Hold on please, I'm coming." Inko sniffed as she padded towards the front door. She opened the door to reveal a young woman, about six younger than her, with dark purple hair and bright blue eyes, and a mole under her left eye.

"Mrs. Midoriya?" the woman asked.

"It's just Ms," Inko told her as she wiped another year from her eye.

"My name is Nemuri Kayama, I was tasked with finding your son. I came here to ask you a few questions to try to get a lead on where he might be," Nemuri explained.

"O-of course, please come in." The shorter woman gestured for Nemuri to come inside, "I apologise for the mess, I've been so busy working to try and afford Izuku's medical bills that I haven't had time to clean up in a while, I forget to eat most of the time...although I guess I won't have to worry about the bills for a while," Inko somberly whispered.

Nemuri internally winced at the woman's tone, everything that had happened to her son had clearly taken its toll on her, she was unhealthily thin, deathly pale, and the dark bags under her eyes probably created a new shade of black.

"Do you know if Izuku has any friends that would be willing to take him in?" the somnambulist user asked.

Inko shook her head "My Izuku didn't really have any friends, he was always by himself, I guess that should have been my first sign that Izuku was being tortured at that school."

"What about any hideaways? Did he have a home away from home?"

"Well, he did often come home late because he was spending time at this comic book store not too far from here," Inko suggested.

"That helps a lot, I'll go take a look there tomorrow morning." Nemuri thanked the short woman as she stood up from the couch.

"Ms. Kayama?" Nemuri turned back to Inko, showing that she was listening, "I've been a terrible mother. I saw that my baby boy was in pain and I did nothing, and I need to make up for that, I need to let him know that I'm gonna be better for him. And in order to do that, I need you to find my baby boy."

Nemuri sucked in a guilty breath through her teeth "I promise, I won't stop until I find him, and bring him back here."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I know that I just posted this story like three weeks ago but I literally can't think of anything else, my head is just filled with idea for this story so I thought that I'd just go ahead and get it out of my system before going on with all my other stories. That's it for now, Peace.


	3. Warehouse Raid

The thick fog of midnight hovered over Musutafu as Izuku stealthily moved between the alleyways to get back to Zen's bar.

The bar looked exactly the same as when Izuku had first walked into it: desolate, and with Zen behind the counter cleaning out a glass.

"You sure you want to do this, kid?" Zen asked as he set the glass down. "Once we do, we can't go back to our normal lives."

"I'm an escaped mental patient, don't think I can have a normal life anymore. Oh, and call me Izuku. If we're going to be vigilantes, we might as well forgo any formalities," Izuku told the older man.

Zen responded with a smile, before he reached under the counter and pulled out a large black duffle bag. "I went ahead and got us some supplies."

"These guys like to use guns in addition to their quirks, so this should at least help a little," Zen said as he unzipped the bag and tossed a thick black vest to Izuku, who slipped it under his overcoat.

Next, the bartender pulled out a box of pistol bullets, and a long black sniper rifle. Izuku took a handful of the bullets and shoved them into one of the pockets in his overcoat. Finally, Zen pulled out two plain white masks and handed one to Izuku.

"Where did you get these?" Izuku questioned as he suspiciously eyed the plastic mask.

"Costume shop," Zen answered simply.

Izuku stared at Zen as if he was playing a cruel joke. "You want me to take down a gang boss wearing a mask from a costume shop?!"

"It's either that or let them see your face."

"Fair enough," Izuku grumbled.

"We should get going," Zen said as he tucked away the sniper, and the masks in the duffle bag, "It's a long train ride and the night's not getting any younger."

  
  


**\-- 2 hours later**

  
  


Izuku followed Zen down a long road lined with warehouses on either side, they got about halfway down the road before Zen pulled him into an alley, sandwiched between two of the large buildings.

"This is it," Zen whispered as he gestured to the warehouse to their right.

"Are you sure?" Izuku asked.

"Positive. I'm gonna try to get to the top of the one straight across from it, while you go through the back and take them by surprise. Now, there are a few residential buildings nearby so we should be careful of how much noise we make," Zen said.

"Wait, before we do this, I don't want us to kill anybody, that should be a line that we don't cross," Izuku told his partner.

"I figured as much. Don't worry, these are tranquilizer darts. They’re not gonna do any serious damage," Zen explained.

"Are you sure those could penetrate the walls?" Izuku turned his gaze to the warehouse.

"These things were built cheap, it's basically sheet metal. I shouldn't have a problem with it," Zen shrugged.

Izuku took a deep breath, before nodding to Zen, who nodded back. Zen pulled out the masks and they both slipped them on, before taking off in different directions. 

The green-haired boy removed his revolver and began to load bullets into it. Holding it felt weird, but weird in a good way, like a sense of power. 

The closer he got to the back of the warehouse, the clearer he could hear something that sounded like arguing. Peering around the corner, he could see a group of four sitting around a flimsy wooden table.

"Alright, wise guy. Raise or fold?"

"Yes."

"What?"

The sound of dice clattering against a table followed as a third voice spoke, "Three."

The first person sighed, "Do you at least know how to play poker, new guy?"

"Of course, you put a gun on the table, you spin it around-"

"That's Russian Roulette," the second guy interrupted.

"-you put the gun to your head-"

"Definitely Russian Roulette!" The third said, panicked.

"-and you pull the trigger!" A clicking sound could be heard, which Izuku assumed to be an unloaded gun firing.

"Stop playing Russian Roulette, you idiot!" It was at this point that Izuku decided to step in. He held his revolver out at arms length and aimed for the small of one of the thug's backs.

The recoil all but sent the gun flying from Izuku's hand, but he still managed to hit his target, who cried out before he slumped against the table.

Izuku pulled the hammer back once more and fired again, this time hitting one of them in the shoulder. 

One of the remaining goons stood from his chair and threw a punch, his arm extending so it could reach Izuku, only for the freckled boy to catch it inches from his face with his free hand. Izuku could feel him trying to retract his stretchy limb, but to no avail. He smirked as he let it go and watched it fly back into the man's face, knocking him to the ground.

The final thug threw his hands up in surrender, "Look, man, I'm new here," Izuku made a jabbing motion with his thumb and the thug ran off without a fight.

The four had been guarding a door into the warehouse, Izuku turned the knob and found a hiding place behind a few boxes just in time to avoid two more men going outside to check out the sound of his fight.

Izuku quickly locked the door behind them, before turning his attention to the center of the warehouse, where a brown-haired couple were kneeling on the ground, surrounded by at least ten thugs.

"Now, where were we? Oh, that's right, it seems that you have refused to give us our payment, haven't you, Mr. And Mrs. Uraraka?" A voice from above Izuku asked.

Standing on a catwalk, flanked by two burly men, was a man in a white trench coat, as well as light blue fedora, his hands were covered with a pair of light blue gloves, Izuku could only assume that this was Jacob Summers.

"We're sorry that we couldn't get you your money, but we needed it to send our daughter to—" Mrs. Uraraka was cut off by Jacob.

"Ah yes, your daughter. Ochako, was it? It would be a real shame if something was to happen to her because of her parent's mistakes," Jacob taunted.

"You bastard! I'll—" Jacob removed one of his gloves and a ball of ice slammed into Mr. Uraraka's forehead.

"That's enough out of you."

"Ditto," Izuku let a bullet fly from his gun, and through Jacob's crotch. His hands flew downwards to cradle his wound, inadvertently freezing everything from his hips to his knees.

Izuku used the boxes as stairs to get to the catwalk and shoved Jacob to the ground. The two burly men attempted to squash him between their chests, only for both of them to get a tranquilizer dart to the neck.

A hail of bullets fired towards Izuku, a few hitting his left arm while the rest hit his vest, before he hopped off of the catwalk and back behind the boxes.

Izuku hissed in agony as he grabbed onto his wounded appendage, trying to quell the pain.

The green-haired boy blindly fired off a bullet, before tucking the revolver away, and removing his hatchet from its place in his overcoat.

The sound of police sirens interrupted Izuku before he could charge as a voice amplified by a megaphone began to yell, "This is the police, come out with your hands up or we will break inside forcefully."

Izuku decided that it would be best for him to get out while he still could so, with slight difficulty due to his arm, he limped out of the warehouse.

  
  


**\--**

  
  


Frank Castle, A.K.A. The Punisher, stood over the unfortunately unconscious bodies of two members of Jacob's gang that had attempted to run away. He was currently posing as a cop as a favor to Dinah Madani, a CIA agent who had helped him out of a tight spot or two, or as Frank liked to put it, got in the way.

Frank was about to contact Dinah, when a clattering of trash cans and a soft muttering of 'shit' grabbed his attention. He whirled around and drew his pistol, aiming it at a young man, wearing a green hoodie, black overcoat, and white mask.

"On your knees." Frank ordered, the masked man didn't reply, simply getting into a fighting stance.

Frank fired a warning shot at the wall behind him, it seemed to startle the masked man, but not deter him.

The Punisher realized that he wasn't going down without a brawl, so he holstered his gun and got in a fighting stance as well.

It was plainly clear that Frank outclassed his opponent in skill level. The hooded figure was simply swinging his fists wildly and hoping to get a hit in, which may have been a slightly viable strategy if Frank didn't have years of military training under his belt.

He was resilient, though, no matter how many times he was punched or kicked, he just got back up again and threw another punch.

Frank threw a right hook, which caused the masked man to spin around, allowing him to be shoved to his hands and knees.

Just as he was about to go for the knockout, the masked man whirled around and slammed a hatchet into Frank's shin, causing him to grunt in pain and fall to a knee.

With the roles now reversed, the hooded figure pulled a revolver from his overcoat and shot Frank in the side of the stomach, before removing the hatchet and putting them both back inside his coat.

As the man walked away, Frank's eyes shifted to a double-barrel shotgun that one of Jacob's men had been carrying. He quickly snatched up the weapon, aimed it at the masked man's back, and fired. The man ragdolled to the ground due to the force, rendering him unconscious.

Frank grunted as he stood up, and pulled a walkie-talkie off of his belt. "Madani? I need you to get down here with a medkit and three sets of handcuffs."

_ "Why the hell do you need a medkit?"  _ Dinah asked from the other end of the radio.

"I got into a fight, the kid got a leg up on me for a few seconds," Frank simply responded, face turned downwards to examine his injury.

Dinah sighed over the radio,  _ "I'll be right there, where are you?" _

"I'm in an alley near the intersec—" the sound of a metal door slamming and tires peeling off interrupted Frank, he brought his eyes back up to see that the masked man was nowhere in sight.

"Madani? Scratch that third handcuff," Frank growled.

  
  


**\--**

  
  


Setsuna woke up in a large field in the middle of a raging thunderstorm, green lightning crackling down around her.

Her foot sunk slightly in the mud, but she trucked forward anyways. Whispers of 'save me' pounded through the sky and penetrated her ear drums.

Setsuna soon came to a clearing in the field, a sole figure with fluffy hair kneeling in the center. It turned its head and it bore into her soul with shimmering green eyes that she recognized almost instantly.

"Izuku!" Setsuna happily cried as she tried to run to him, only to slip in the mud and fall face first.

Pulling her face up from the sludge, the sharp-toothed girl's stomach filled with dread, Izuku was quickly sinking into the mud.

Setsuna raced to her feet and began to sprint towards the boy. She watched helplessly as her fingers grazed his before he was completely dragged under.

Setsuna frantically clawed at the wet dirt, but to no avail, fat tears started to fall down her cheeks. 

The wind started to pick up, she stared into the cloudy sky and saw the disappointed face of Izuku, "Why didn't you save me?"

His voice was booming and it hurt her ears, more tears poured down her cheeks as she struggled to reply "I'm s-sorry, I tried!"

"Not hard enough," Izuku scowled, before a lightning strike came down on her.

  
  


**\--**

  
  


Setsuna sat up screaming in her bed, skin slick with sweat, she grabbed her heart in an attempt to quell the palpitations. 

After a few minutes, Setsuna managed to calm herself down. She took another minute to just relax before getting up and getting ready to go into the hospital. Just because Izuku wasn't there anymore didn't mean that she could just give up on the other people she took care of.

She quickly took a shower and brushed her teeth before putting on her scrubs. She then applied a small bit of make-up and walked into the kitchen to get something for breakfast.

The house was dead quiet, as usual. Her parents both worked a night shift so they were currently asleep, leaving the house to her.

Setsuna turned on the news and made a bowl of cereal for herself, her mind wandered as she ate, thinking of Izuku.

It was still hard for her to believe that he had run away. She knew that he was headstrong and reckless. She had experienced it first hand, after all.

  
  


**\--Flashback**

  
  


Setsuna hummed to herself as she pushed the food cart down towards Izuku's room, she had slowly managed to get him to open up to her.

It had been a month since the two had met, and while he was cold and distant a lot, she still managed to get him to open up to her occasionally.

As Setsuna got to his room, she could hear grunts of exasperation from inside. She quickly unlocked the door and opened it up to see Izuku on the floor, trying to push himself to his feet.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Setsuna scolded as she helped him back into the bed.

"I had that!" Izuku yelled in frustration.

"Like hell you did," Setsuna argued. "What were you even thinking?"

"IF I'M TOO WEAK TO EVEN SUPPORT MY OWN FRAIL BODY, THEN HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GET REVENGE ON THE BASTARD THAT DID THIS TO ME!?" Izuku screamed as a few tears pricked at his eyes.

_ 'So, that's what this is about,'  _ Setsuna solemnly thought to himself,  _ 'If only I could tell him what actually happened.' _

The sharp-toothed girl sighed. "Your physical rehabilitation starts next week, just be patient until then."

"I don't want to be patient, I’m tired of being so weak," Izuku grumbled.

"Well, then I'll help you. Every time I come here, we'll work on getting you to stand up. How's that sound?" Setsuna proposed.

Izuku seemed to ponder it for a few seconds, before letting a smile ghost his face, "I'd like that."

"So, do you mind explaining to me how you got out of the restraints?" Setsuna asked.

Izuku let out a weak laugh, "It's a lot easier to squirm your way out of tight spots when you can barely feel your arms or legs."

Setsuna rolled her eyes and gave a small chuckle, the two of them kept talking for a while before Setsuna had to leave to tend to her other duties.

  
  


**\--Back to the present**

  
  


Setsuna sniffed quietly as she remembered more of her time with the green-haired boy, bringing more and more waves of despair.

Setsuna didn't go into work that day.

  
  


**\-- Two days later**

  
  


Izuku groaned, shifting in whatever he was sitting in, and immediately hissing in regret.

"You'll want to keep still, I may have patched you up, but you'll be sore for a few days," a Russian-accented voice warned.

Standing in front of a shelf that held rows and rows of cloth, was an old yet muscular man, with a thick gray beard that hung a little past his neck, short gray hair, and blue eyes. He was wearing a striped, blue button up shit, a dark gray vest, dress pants, dress shoes, and a tape measure hung off of his shoulders.

"Who...are you?" Izuku asked, just barely being able to speak through the exhaustion.

"The man who saved your ass, that's who," the Russian man slyly replied, "My name is Dimitri."

As Izuku scanned what he could of the room he was in, he noticed that his mask was sitting on a small table beside him, causing him to panic slightly.

Dimitri chuckled, "Do not worry, I'm not going to turn you or your partner in. Your secret is safe with me."

"Where is Zen?" Izuku asked.

"He's downstairs on lookout, we don't want anyone coming into my shop while you're here," Dimitri said.

"Shop?"

"Could you not tell that I am a tailor?" Dimitri questioned jokingly, "My quirk works similarly to...Best Jeanist? But instead of just denim, I can control all forms of cloth."

The sound of someone coming up the stairs halted Izuku's questioning, "Hey, Dimitri, is he awake yet?" 

Zen's question was answered immediately as he saw Izuku, "Hey, good to see you awake."

"How long was I out?" Izuku asked.

"An entire day, you were hit pretty hard," Zen chuckled.

Izuku stayed silent for a few seconds, before he chuckled as well, "That did not go according to plan."

"Not in the slightest," Zen agreed.

"If we're gonna keep doing this, then we're going to need some more help," Izuku said.

"I could help with that," Dimitri offered.

"What do you mean?" Zen suspiciously questioned.

"I can hack into digital records of hospitals and find out who doesn't have a quirk. From there, I can track them down for you," Dimitri explained.

"You can do that?/ That sounds like stalking," Zen and Izuku, respectively, said at the same time.

"Of course I can," Dimitri answered, choosing to ignore what Izuku said, "For a price."

"What do you want?" Izuku asked.

"Zen told me what you two are doing, I want in. I don't want to fight, but I'll help you out in any way I can," Dimitri said.

Izuku and Zen looked to each other for an answer, before Izuku turned back to the tailor, "Ok, you're in."

"чудесно! First, I need to make modifications to your outfits. They are not gonna work out in the long run," Dimitri cheered before heading downstairs.

The two young men sat in silence for a few minutes, which was interrupted by Zen, "Do you think we should have codenames?"

"What?" Izuku asked back.

"Well, if we're gonna be vigilantes, then we shouldn't refer to each other by our real names if we're out doing vigilante stuff," Zen explained.

"I mean, I guess, but—"

"Great, I want to be called Void," Zen excitedly told Izuku.

"You've been thinking about this for a while haven't you?" Izuku rolled his eyes.

"Yep, so what do you want yours to be?" Zen asked, a goofy grin plastering his face.

Izuku pondered on it for a few minutes, going through many different names, before he finally landed on one that he thought fit pretty well.

"Jigsaw."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna be honest, I didn't plan for Frank and Dinah to be introduced so soon, but I needed a way to introduce Dimitri, and I thought, why not kill three birds with one stone. That's it for now, Peace.


	4. Brimstone Twins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer here, when I do this: ++, it indicates a P.O.V. change while staying in the current scene. While this: ---, it indicates a scene change, which could also hold a P.O.V. change

Izuku cautiously pushed open the front door to Dimitri's tailor shop, with Zen following closely behind him.

The shop was dark and empty, its owner nowhere in sight.

It was around eleven o'clock. The two of them had simply been hanging out in his bar when Zen had gotten a text from Dimitri, which had freaked him out, considering that the bartender had never given him his numbers, simply saying to come down to his shop.

"Where the hell is he?"

Izuku scoffed, "I knew it. He either lied about helping us or he forgot."

The two were about to leave when a mechanical hissing from the back of the shop stopped them.

"Do not be so pessimistic, my friends," Dimitri said as he stepped out from behind a shelf that was out of line from the rest of them, a blue light blasting against his frame. "I was simply getting the door open."

Izuku and Zen followed him behind the shelf, which slammed closed once they were through. Dimitri led them down a spiral staircase into a large underground room. A computer setup with three different monitors sat flush against the back wall, and at the front of the room four bare mannequins sat in wait.

"What is this?" Izuku questioned.

"It was a panic room, designed for long term stay in a bad situation. I added a few extra security measures myself," Dimitri said, smirking proudly.

"That's impressive," Izuku complimented.

"Thank you. Now, onto what I called you here for. I was able to find a candidate for your group; two, actually," Dimitri informed them as he dropped down onto a chair and pulled up to the computer. "A pair of twins, both thirty-two, named Kesseki and Kaen Burimu."

"What are the odds that a pair of twins are born quirkless?" Zen chuckled.

"That's the thing; Kesseki wasn't born quirkless. A year ago, he was sent to the hospital to be treated for a bullet wound. He was out for a few days and when he came to, he could no longer access his quirk," Dimitri explained.

"Where can we find them?" Izuku asked seriously.

"They work as bouncers at a nightclub called 'Lavish' a few miles from here. Should be a short bus ride and then you're there," Dimitri answered.

"Zen, I want you to stay here. We don't wanna make them feel like they're being ganged up on, since it could make them aggressive," Izuku ordered as he walked up the spiral staircase to leave.

He popped his head back down in the basement a few seconds later and embarrassedly scratched the back of his head, "Hey Dimitri, can you, um, can you come open the door, please?"

  
  


**\--**

  
  


Izuku scoffed as he stared up at Lavish. Lights of neon red and orange wrapped around the building and obnoxious music spilled out from the building, making Izuku's head start to hurt.

He never was one for flashy things.

Pulling his hood up further, Izuku bumped his way through the line, getting a few angry yells in response.

Soon, he was at the front of the line, facing a beefy man with short black hair. "Are you on the list?" he asked.

"No. Where are Kesseki and Kaen?" Izuku asked back.

"They're on trash duty, should be in that alleyway." The bouncer jabbed his thumb to the left.

Izuku peered down the alley and saw the two he was looking for gathered around a dumpster.

"If you don't stop sighing, I swear I'll knock your teeth out," one of the twins, this one with a full head of hair, seethed

"Well, what do you want me to do man? I'm sick of being stuck in this dead-end job!" the other twin yelled.

"It pays the bills, doesn't it?"

"But when are we gonna do something that matters?"

"I can help with that," Izuku offered.

One of the twins grabbed a bag of trash and hurled it at Izuku, which he dodged easily.

"Sorry, you startled me… uh, hey who are you?" the twin who had thrown the bag asked.

Izuku was just now able to get a good look at Kesseki and Kaen. They were both extremely buff and they wore the same outfit: a black T-shirt, black pants, and black shoes. The only discernible difference was that one of them had dirty blond dreadlocks, and the other's hair was shaved close down to his scalp.

"Which one of you is Kesseki, and which one of you is Kaen?" Izuku questioned.

"I'm Kesseki," said the one with dreadlocks.

"And I'm Kaen," the other twin answered, "Now why don't you answer our questions?"

"My name is Izuku Midoriya, and I think that we can help each other," Izuku flipped off his hood, revealing his scarred face.

"Whoa," Kaen took a step back when he saw Izuku's face.

"Yeah, I get that a lot," Izuku sighed.

"How can you help us?" Kesseki interjected.

"Did you hear about Jacob Summers?"

"Yeah, that gang boss that got arrested a few days ago. What about him?" Kaen asked.

"I took him down. Well, me and a friend. Kaen, you said you wanted to do something that matters and this is it, my friend. I want you two to join my cause," Izuku explained.

"And what is that cause, exactly?" The interest in Kaen's voice was clear.

"I'm gonna prove that us quirkless aren't as useless as everyone says," Izuku said with a passion.

"Look dude, we're fine staying in our lane. We appreciate the offer, but we have to get back to work," Kesseki grabbed his brother by the shoulder and began to drag him to the door.

Izuku knew that he was losing the two, so he played the last card he had, "How hard did you have to work to get this job? How much did you have to beg to get the apartment you live in? What do they even pay you here? You can't deny that there is a piece of you that wants to be seen on par with everybody else. Listen to that part of yourselves, please."

The twins stopped in their tracks, seemingly debating with each other without actually speaking.

Kesseki whirled around and stormed up to Izuku. "All right, we'll join you, but for a price; tomorrow at twelve o'clock, two rival gangs are supposed to meet here to form a treaty and we have a feeling that it's gonna go south. You are going to help us make sure no one gets hurt."

"Deal," Izuku grinned, pulling a slip of paper from his pocket that he handed to the buff man in front of him. "Come to this address at ten PM."

  
  


**\--**

  
  


"Hey," Zen greeted Izuku as he walked into the tailor shop. "Did you get them to agree?"

"Not exactly; they want a favor from us. I'm gonna need you to grab a few more of those masks you got for us and bring them all back here tomorrow morning, even yours," Izuku told him.

"What do you plan to do with them?" Zen asked.

"Just gonna add a bit of... personality. I'll see you in the morning." Izuku waved goodbye to his purple-eyed friend as he sauntered out of the shop.

"Do you need to crash here for the night?" Dimitri offered from behind Izuku.

"Jesus Christ!" Izuku jumped forward, startled by the Russian man's unannounced entrance. "Quit sneaking up on us man! But that'd be great, thanks. I got a big day tomorrow."

  
  


**\--**

  
  


The bell for the door rang out through the shop, alerting Izuku and Zen.

"You showed up." Izuku stood up from the chair he was in and turned around to face Kesseki and Kaen.

"We said we would, didn't we?" Kesseki asked.

"I'm glad you did. Follow us." Izuku walked over to where the panic room door was, grabbing a bolt of green cloth, then a bolt of red before, switching their places and causing the shelf to slide open.

The twins stared in awe at the bunker. Dimitri stood in the center of the room with a tape measure around his neck.

"Stand here, please," Dimitri ordered. The two of them complied and the Russian began to take their measurements. After it was all said and done, he held his hand out and tons of almost invisible strands of thread began to wrap around two of the mannequins.

"Are those for us?" Kaen asked.

One of the mannequins was now wearing a leather jacket, while the other wore a tight black shirt with long sleeves, and they both wore the same pair of black jeans.

"Yep, so go get dressed," Izuku said as he walked out in his hoodie and overcoat, his weapons already tucked away.

Zen had also gotten his outfit on as well; a dark grey sweater that went down to his elbows. His rifle was strapped to his back.

The twins grabbed the mannequins and disappeared for a few minutes before Kesseki came out wearing the leather jacket and Kaen came out wearing the tight shirt.

"We look good." Kaen smiled.

"You'll feel good too. Not only are they made for comfort, but they're fireproof, shockproof, and bullet resistant," Dimitri explained proudly. "I also reinforced your masks, and although a headshot won't kill you, it will still have severe ramifications, so try not to take a bullet to the head too often."

"How did you pull that off?" Zen's tone revealed his rampant disbelief.

"A magician never reveals his secrets, and neither does a tailor."

"Wait... masks?" Kesseki questioned.

Izuku smirked before turning around and grabbing a silver briefcase, opening it up to reveal their masks, only they were no longer plain white, but instead painted to look like his mask from the hospital. The only difference is that each one other than his had a different color to replace the green.

Izuku tossed the masks out one by one—purple for Zen, orange for Kesseki, and red for Kaen—before slipping the green one over his head.

"Catch, you two," Dimitri threw a shotgun and a war hammer, which were caught by Kaen and Kesseki respectively. "I apologize, but you may have to share."

"Ah, it's all right, we share everything else; our house, our clothes, and even our car." Kaen received a smack against the back of his head when he said 'car’.

"Man, it's my car. I don't know what all this sharing shit you're talking about is," Kesseki stated.

Dimitri chuckled while he plopped a cardboard box in front of them that read: 'Bird shot.' "Your belts have holsters for these, so load up."

As the twins loaded up, Izuku realized that there was one last thing to do before they could leave. "You guys need to give yourselves names, since we can't have people finding out who you are."

"Hm. Call me Inferno" Kaen smiled as he laid the hammer on his shoulder.

"I'll be Stone," Kesseki said while cocking the shotgun.

"Good choices. I'm Void and he's Jigsaw," Zen placed a duffle bag for them to store their weapons on the table.

"This is gonna be a lot bigger of an operation, since there's going to be far more witnesses than there was when we took down Jacob. From here on out, we'll have a target painted on our back, so this is your last chance to opt out," Izuku warned the twins.

"Nah man, I'm already fired up!" Kaen cheered.

"Plus, you can't get into the building without us." Kesseki smirked as he threw the duffle bag over his shoulder.

The smile on Izuku's scarred face grew wide. Everything was coming together for him, for once. Even the dull throbbing of his ever-present headaches had subsided for the first time.

"Let's go kick some ass then."

  
  


**\--**

  
  


Izuku groaned quietly, pulling his hood further down his head. The flashing lights of the club and the eardrum-shattering music were making him severely uncomfortable.

"Hey Jigsaw, you ok?" Zen asked, concerned for his friend's health.

"Yeah, I just... hate bright lights and loud noises," Izuku hissed through his teeth.

The four were sitting at a table, masks on and the bag of weapons at their feet. Thankfully, most people were either too drunk or too high to question the four guys sitting in the corner with creepy masks over their faces.

"Yo, yo, there's our guys," Kaen whisper-shouted, pointing at two groups of six people facing off against each other.

They seemed to be passionately arguing about something, although the four of them were unable to hear exactly what they were arguing about.

"Grab your weapons, boys. I have a feeling that things are about to pop off," Kesseki said as he unzipped the duffle bag.

The gangs started to speak louder. "No man, why do you want to work with them? They sold drugs to my nephew! He OD'd and now he's in the hospital! And you want me to work with them?!"

"You're selling those same drugs to the people in our community, don't give us that shit!" One of the members from the rival gang yelled back.

"Yeah? Well it won't be your community if you're dead!" A gang member pulled a handgun from his back and shot one of the rival’s dead, which led to everybody else pulling their guns.

The club patrons screamed in terror and ran out, clogging up the door. Reinforcements for both gangs plowed through the hysteric crowd, before opening fire on each other.

Izuku drew his revolver and fired off all of his bullets, hitting three in the shoulder, two more in the leg, and blasting off someone's thumb, causing him to drop his gun. Knowing he had to reload, Izuku swapped his gun for his hatch and bolted across the room, slashing at anyone in his path, eventually vaulting himself over the bar for cover.

While loading the cylinder, he noticed the terrified bartender cowering away from him, a few cuts on her hands from glass bottles that had been destroyed by gunfire.

"Hey, I'm Jigsaw," Izuku greeted in an attempt to calm her down. He held out his hand to her, which she hesitantly shook. "Don't worry, stick with me and you'll be safe."

  
  


**++**

  
  


Shit had hit the fan pretty quick, with quirks and bullets flying through the air and the clip in Zen's gun had just run empty. Now this would have been fine normally, if it wasn't for the fact that a guy with a fire quirk was charging him.

Zen defensively shielded his face as a fireball rapidly hurled towards his form. It slammed into his chest and pushed him back a few feet, but other than that and an ash-covered sweater, he was completely fine.

Zen whooped manically, throwing his rifle in the air and catching it by the barrel before swinging it like a bat and knocking the flame guy out.

  
  


**++**

  
  


Kaen had rushed in with his war hammer, busting kneecaps and forcing people to ragdoll to the ground. His brother followed him shortly after, taking down someone who had tried to shoot Kaen in the back with his shotgun.

"Inferno!" Kesseki called out.

Kaen turned on his heel swiftly to face his brother, "What is it?!"

"Switch!" 

The shotgun was thrown into the air, directed towards Kaen, and the hammer was tossed at Kesseki a few seconds later.

Kesseki knocked the wind out of somebody by whacking them in the stomach, causing them to fall on the ground, struggling for breath.

Kaen fired the remaining shell low, specifically at someone's legs, making her fall flat on her face.

"Hoo-Ah!" The twins yelled in unison.

  
  


**++**

  
  


Suddenly, the sound of police sirens and screeching tires breached through the club. Izuku knew that this meant police reinforcements, so he grabbed the bartender and pulled her to the back door, where the rest of the crew were waiting.

Once outside, Izuku pushed the woman towards the direction of the cops as Zen began scanning for a way out. Next to them was an apartment complex, and dangling oh so conveniently was the ladder for the fire escape.

"All right you guys, time to do some roof hopping!" Zen threw himself up on the ladder and climbed as fast as he could, the others following him just as quick.

  
  


**\--**

  
  


The small band of vigilantes groaned as they dragged themselves through the front door of Dimitri's shop, immediately crashing on the first pieces of furniture they could find, which was the floor in Kaen's case.

"Oh god, I'm so tired," Zen whined.

"It was your idea to escape via the rooftops, so this is your fault!" Izuku yelled, voice muffled by a pillow.

"I guess you are all staying the night then," Dimitri chuckled from over them.

"Oh man, we are so sorry that we kept you up this late. You don't mind if we crash here do you?" Kesseki guiltily asked.

"Of course not. It’s what I signed up for, is it not?" Dimitri rhetorically asked back.

"Thank you, although we may have to extend our stay for a few days since we're getting evicted tomorrow," Kaen groaned.

"Wait, why are you getting evicted?" Izuku sat up in surprise.

"Well, we kinda vandalized our landlord's office and spray painted all kinds of abhorrent shit on his walls," Kesseki admitted.

"That's actually pretty perfect, since my bar is under an apartment complex. Now I talked to the landlord and he said that he'll give anybody an apartment for twenty-five percent of what it usually costs as long as you work for me," Zen offered.

"That sounds pretty nice, man. You sure your landlord's ok with that?" Kesseki asked for confirmation.

"Yeah, totally. You'd be working behind the bar with me, Kaen would be security, and Izuku would be in charge of sanitation because I don't think he's old enough to work behind a bar," Zen explained further.

"Hey, whatever gets you off my couch," Dimitri laughed.

"What? I thought you said you were fine with us crashing here?!" Kesseki said.

Dimitri froze up. "Oh, well would you look at the time, I should get some rest. Old folks like me are quite fragile."

"Hey, you come back and answer that question!"

  
  


**\--**

  
  


Shouta scowled as he walked out of yet another empty alley.

Three days ago, a nightclub was the location of a massacre. Although only around a dozen criminals had been killed, those who were left alive told the police about a group of vigilantes that had attacked them, and a bartender had gone on some news channel to talk about how one of them, by the name of Jigsaw, had saved her.

Needless to say, the Hero Public Safety Commission was not happy about them and Shouta just so happened to be one of the best vigilante trackers they had on call.

Plus, he was getting really annoyed by the news talking about them everyday.

A scream from across the street broke him out of his thoughts. A loud bang sounded off after it and a woman with disheveled clothes ran off with her purse clutched close to her chest.

Shouta threw his capture scarf upwards, latching on to the railing of the roof across from him and pulling himself to the top.

It was a few seconds before he was joined by someone else. Judging by his stature, he was somewhere between eighteen and twenty-four, he wore a dark green hoodie, a black overcoat and a green mask that had criss-crossing black lines all over it.

"Jigsaw, I presume?" Shouta asked.

"No way, you're Eraserhead, the guy who fights quirkless!" Jigsaw's tone held muffled excitement.

"You know your stuff," Shouta said.

Jigsaw cleared his throat. "Yeah, well, I'm a vigilante. I gotta know my stuff in case I come up against a hero."

"You're still coming with me," Shouta grabbed his scarf and threw it at Jigsaw, who's hands flew to his overcoat. The capture weapon wrapped around his torso just as his hand flew inside of it.

"Don't resist, or I'll have to hurt you," the underground hero warned.

"You'll have to be quicker if you want to do that," Jigsaw chuckled as he pulled out a revolver and shot Shouta through the side.

The capture scarf loosened and Jigsaw broke out of it before running up and headbutting him. 

Jigsaw began to walk away and Shouta knew that although he may take an overall loss, he could still get some ounce of evidence to his identity. Throwing out his scarf, Shouta snagged Jigsaw's leg and yanked it out from under him.

The vigilante crashed against the ground, throwing his hood off and causing his mask to become slightly ajar.

Jigsaw scrambled up to his feet and ripped off the scarf, before fixing his hood and mask.

"Nice one, you almost saw my face," he panted.

With that, Jigsaw jumped down the fire escape, leaving Shouta to wrap up his torso to stop the bleeding.

The underground hero hadn’t found out much, but he did learn that the vigilante had dark green hair and a scar on his chin.

This was going to be harder than he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was super satisfying to write, it allowed me to get out all my anger about school starting back up even though we're in the middle of a goddamned pandemic. That's it for now peace.


	5. Eirene and Joule

Izuku and Kaen stood facing a large aquarium on the other side of the street. The former wore a blue hoodie on loan from Zen, and the latter was dressed in his regular bouncer attire. Supposedly a quirkless woman by the name of Umi Kawa was working here today.

"Alright, now remember, once we get in there you need to do all the talking, at least until we find Kawa," Izuku instructed his partner.

"Wait, that's why you brought me here? I thought you just wanted to hang out," Kaen pouted.

Izuku rolled his eyes as the two walked through a set of sliding glass doors, a receptionist positioned on either side of them.

Kaen sighed as he forked over six thousand yen for the both of them, earning what he hoped was an apologetic look from Izuku. Although the hood made it hard to tell.

"One last thing ma'am?"

"Of course."

"Do you happen to know where Umi Kawa is today?" Kaen asked.

The receptionist's face fell, "Ugh, that quirkless bitch who works tours?" She scowled.

"The fuck did you just—" Kaen was grabbed by his wrist before he could finish.

"Yes, that's exactly who we're looking for," Izuku answered.

"She's in the amphibian section, good luck trying to talk to her." She waved them off and went back to work.

"May I ask why you didn't allow me to deck her all the way to the sun?" Kaen irritatedly asked once they were far enough away.

"Because we would have been thrown out, we need to keep a low profile. Trust me, people like her will get their due," Izuku said.

The two of them walked over to a large semi-circle hallway, bathed in a dark green light.

"And this ladies and gentlemen is the Loggerhead musk turtle, a species native to southern parts of the United States, they—" a female voice was interrupted by another voice.

"Kawa! Clean up in the first floor woman's restroom," a male voice barked from around the corner.

"I'm in the middle of a tour right now, plus shouldn't you be on janitorial today?" Umi asked, her tone portraying an underlying hatred.

"Don't care, go get to mopping." a gruff looking bald man rounded the corner and walked past Izuku and Kaen.

"I'm so sorry everybody, but the tour is going to have to stop here." A crowd of 'aw's resounded from the corner as a woman who they could only assume to be Umi walked around the corner, pushing a large yellow bucket with her.

Umi was a slender woman with an athletic build, she stood at around five foot eight, and her dark hair was tied back in a ponytail, a streak of dark blue stood out against the sea of black.

"Ms. Kawa?" Izuku asked.

"Yes, how do you know my name?" Umi asked cautiously.

Izuku flipped his hood down, "My name is Izuku Midoriya, I—"

"You're that quirkless boy that broke out of a hospital," Umi realized.

"So you do know me," Izuku sighed.

"I should call the cops on you," she warned.

Izuku softly chuckled, "So why don't you then?"

"You seem like a smart boy, you wouldn't show your face in a public area to a complete stranger unless you had a good reason. So I'd like to hear it," Umi explained.

Izuku held his hand out to Kaen, who pulled a folded up newspaper from his back pocket and handed it over.

"This was us." Izuku unfurled the newspaper to reveal an article about the nightclub shoot out. "Well, us and a few friends."

"Are you serious?"

"As serious as you can be," Izuku answered.

"You want me to join your group don't you? Why would you possibly want someone quirkless with you guys?" Umi scoffed.

"Well everybody else is quirkless, I thought that I might as well keep the theme going," Izuku answered.

Umi froze in her place.

"Let me ask you something," he continued, "The girl at the front desk, and the guy who stuck you on clean up...are those the only of your co-workers that mistreat you?"

"We're gonna make sure quirkless people get seen as equals. We won't be denied housing, or work, or a place to eat for something we can't control," Kaen growled.

"We don't need an answer from you right now Kawa, but if your answer ends up being yes, meet me here at the time listed under the address." Izuku handed her a small piece of paper, before throwing his hood up and motioning for Kaen to follow him out of the aquarium.

  
  


**\--**

  
  


Izuku smirked as he heard the shops bell jingle, "Hello Kawa, thank you for coming," the scarred man stood up and turned around to shake her hand.

"Don't make me regret trusting you," she threatened, "And please, call me Umi. If we're going to be vigilantes we might as well call each other by our first names."

"Alright then, follow me." Izuku opened up the door to the bunker and led the new recruit down the stairs, where Dimitri, Zen, and the twins were playing cards.

"Ah, welcome, I was just about to finish work on your suit," Dimitri yelled, clapping his hands together and walking into a room that he kept sealed.

"My...suit?" Umi questioned.

"Well yeah. Did you think you'd be fighting crime in a T-shirt?" Zen asked back, "Zen's the name by the way."

"Umi."

"I know."

"What?"

"If you two are done," Dimitri interrupted, "I'd like to show Ms. Umi my work." He then pulled a mannequin out from behind him, wearing a black wetsuit with two white stripes cascading down the sides, and a pair of light blue sneakers, additionally, her version of the mask rested on the face, this one blue in color.

"This looks amazing," Umi said in awe, running her fingers over the fabric.

"Of course it does, I made it." Dimitri pulled a small metal baton from his pocket and threw it to Umi, "Catch."

The baton began to whir once in her hand, before loudly hissing and extending into a trident.

"Oh you are just having way too much fun with the fact that I work at an aquarium," Umi sighed.

"Yes. Yes I am," Dimitri said with a smile.

"One last thing. If you're gonna be one of us you'll need a codename," Izuku told her.

"A codename?"

"A codename."

"Stop saying 'codename' so much," Kesseki groaned.

Umi thought for a few seconds, before an idea popped in her head, "What about Eirene, the daughter of Poseidon?"

"I like it," Zen grinned.

Suddenly, Kaen's hand slammed down on the foldable table, "Wait wait wait wait wait, can we shrink out hammer too?" 

"Of course," Dimitri answered, "...Did I not mention that?"

"Do you know how fucking hard it is to fit a war hammer in a duffle bag and then sneak it into a nightclub?!" Kesseki roared.

"I'm sorry, but it's not entirely my fault," the old tailor said, innocently raising his hands.

"Who the hell else would take any of the blame?!"

_ Snort _

The room paused and turned to Izuku, who was covering his mouth.

"Quick! Keep arguing about nonsensical bullshit, we might be able to get a laugh out of him," Zen yelled.

"Do it and I'll shove ladybugs down your pants."

  
  


**\-- The next day**

  
  


Teki Arashi, a six foot two woman with long blonde hair, was perfectly fine with her life. I mean sure, she is constantly tortured by her co-workers at the electrical plant and paid two-thirds as much for twice the work, and sure one of her roommates is a quirkless hating bastard who keeps trying to get her kicked out of her apartment, and...god her life fucking sucks.

Teki sighed, she had heard a rumour of a potential firing tomorrow, not to mention another one of her piece of shit roommates plots to get her kicked out was currently unfolding. She swears her life is gonna end up giving her a heart attack.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw shadows begin to shift, thinking it was one of her co-workers, she begrudgingly dropped her clipboard and turned around to face them, ready to take whatever it was they wanted to say directly on the chin.

It wasn't one of her co-workers.

Out of the darkness, a young man moved towards her, wearing a crimson colored hoodie with the hood up to cover his face.

"Um, sir, you can't be in here," Teki called.

"Oh I know." The man flipped his hood down to reveal his mangled face, one that admittedly made Teki recoil on sight, causing the man to chuckle.

"I will call security on you if you don't leave now," Teki said, unhooking a walkie-talkie from her belt.

"Please don't," the man deadpanned.

"Give me one good reason?" Teki asked.

"My name is Izuku Midoriya, I came here today to make you an offer," Izuku explained.

"And...what exactly would that offer be?" Teki lowered her walkie-talkie a few inches.

"I'll drop the semantics, I am a vigilante, I have been finding people just like us, people who are quirkless, to join me. Together, we plan to show those who have shunned us as nothing more than paper weights what we can really do. I want you to join us, and help prove our worth," Izuku's voice was strong and righteous.

"So you're asking me to overthrow the status quo?" Teki looked down in thought.

"Among a few other things." Izuku pulled a card from his pocket, "When you have an answer for me."

Teki studied the card, and turned her head up to ask a question. But Izuku was already gone.

She was about to crumble up the card, when she noticed her hands, gloveless, "Not enough money to splurge," her boss had said, "You'll just have to make due."

The hand holding the card curled in a ball, she let out a quick yell of rage and tossed her clipboard into the shadows as hard as she could.

Teki's faced turned down to look at the card:

_ Dimitri's, 0987 Yamato boulevard. Twelve o'clock sharp. _

She was going to have to cancel game night with her other roommates.

  
  


**\--**

  
  


Kesseki shot up out of his seat and spun around the moment he heard the shop bell ring, scaring Teki slightly.

"Hey, call me Kesseki, you're Arashi right?" 

"Yep, and please call me Teki, it makes me more comfortable, a byproduct of living in America until I was fifteen," She told him.

"Fair enough, come on, Dimitri's just finishing up your suit."

"You have no idea how excited I am right now," Teki gushed.

Kesseki opened up the secret passage and led her down the spiral staircase to the bunker.

Watching Dimitri work was really something, threads spiraling and stitching themselves together, soft orchestral music played in the background as his fingers commanded the strings to move.

With one final twirl of his index finger, the outfit was finished. 

"Oh my god that is so fucking sick!" Teki bolted down the last set of stairs, catching the attention of Izuku, Zen, and everybody else, who had been watching a TV that they mounted onto the back wall.

"I take it you like it?" Dimitri jokingly asked.

"Hell yeah I do!" Teki answered.

Her suit consisted of a pair of dark grey coveralls with a bright yellow zipper, and black combat boots, her mask was also a bright yellow.

"You're enthusiastic," Izuku noted.

"Gee good observation Captain Obvious," Umi remarked.

"Do you know how long I've waited for something like this to happen to me?! We're gonna be like the G-list Avengers!" the blonde woman cheered.

"That may be taking it a bit too far." Zen turned his head to Dimitri, who was impatiently tapping his foot, clearly wanting to get the floor back.

"If you think that's cool, then you should let him explain what your weapon is," Kaen said, gaining a nod of approval from Dimitri.

"I get a weapon!"

"Of course, Izuku's unhinged, but not unhinged enough to let you fight against people with quirks bare handed," Kesseki chuckled as he took a seat.

"Hey you decided to join me, if I'm unhinged then so are all of you."

_ Ahem _

Everybody turned their heads to Dimitri, who was holding a silver briefcase. Silently, he undid the latches and opened it up to reveal two long black gloves with a big turret attached to each of them.

A yellow line ran over each one of the fingers, the bottom of the hand was made of a bright yellow rubber, on the side of the hand, between the thumb and index finger was a red button, and a small bump sat on the underside of each of the fingertips.

"These are wrist mourned assault rifles, the red button is a safety mechanism, once you tap it, all you have to do to fire is close your fist." Dimitri clipped a belt around the mannequin's waist, one that was lined with bullet clips, "And this is your ammo belt. Now, I must warn you, we don't kill here, so these are rubber bullets, but that doesn't mean you can't kill people with them, so don't aim for the soft spots."

"Wasn't planning on it." Teki smiled.

"Alright, final order of business, you need a call sign, we can't use your real name when-" Zen was interrupted by Teki.

"I know, call me Joule, like the form of electricity measurement!"

"Man, everybody here comes up with such great names. Kesseki, what stopped you from doing it?" Kaen chuckled.

"Well, guess we know who's vacuuming the apartment tomorrow." Kesseki learned over hand flicked his brother in the center of his forehead.

Teki suddenly twirled around excitedly, "Ooh, when's our first mission?"

"M-mission?" Zen stuttered out.

"We're vigilantes aren't we, we should be out fighting crime!"

"I know of an old mercenary forum on the dark web. Most of the jobs posted there are highly illegal, I can check there," Dimitri offered.

"Aren't those places highly secure and encrypted to hell and back?" Umi asked.

Dimitri waved off her concerns, "I needed a new hobby about a decade ago and hacking sounded fun. I've gotten pretty good at it too, I can hack into almost anything given enough time."

"Anything." Izuku sat up straight at Dimitri's proud words.

"Anything. I'll call you all here when I've found something."

As Kesseki walked up the staircase, he heard Izuku pull Dimitri to the side, small whispers of, "I have a favor to ask you," were just barely audible.

  
  


**\-- 3 days later**

  
  


"Ah good, you're all here." Dimitri spun around in his chair, away from his monitors, and watched Zen slide off the bannister.

"We came as soon as we got your text," Kaen said.

For the sake of convenience, Umi and Teki moved into Zen's building as well, that way when they got word back from Dimitri, they could all arrive at the same time.

"So what have you got for us!?" Teki's excitement was practically bleeding through her existence.

"I've gotten word of a drug exchange going down not far from here. They seem to be working together, one group handing off the ingredients, and the other giving the ingredients," Dimitri explained.

"So what's the drug?" Izuku asked, leaning in closer.

"Something called Trigger, highly addictive stuff, it's meant to increase the power of one's quirk to ungodly levels," the old Russian explained.

Umi sucked in a nervous breath through her teeth, "That's not good in the slightest."

"No, no it is not."

"They are meeting at two-thirty seven tonight," Dimitri told them.

"Why such a random time?" Kesseki asked.

"Trigger is as illegal as it is deadly, possession of it is a death sentence." Dimitri swiveled back around to face them, "You should stay and prepare yourselves, we won't be leaving for a bit."

As the six of them began to head upstairs, Dimitri grabbed Izuku by his wrist, "I got into their servers, I was booted out pretty quickly but I managed to see what you wanted to find out."

Izuku drew in a short breath, "And?"

"She passed with flying colors, she is moving into the dorms tonight."

"I knew she'd get in. Thank you, Dimitri, that's all I needed to know." Izuku tried to walk away, but he was stopped by Dimitri's surprisingly strong grip.

"Are you not going to go and see her?"

"No, no if she saw me then she'd get protective, try and drag me back to the hospital. She was always like that." Izuku let out a sad, yet happy chuckle, "I remember there was this guy that always wore his hair in a man-bun, he'd always mess with me back when my muscle were recovering from atrophy... I'll never forget the look on his face when Setsuna decked him to the floor, wiped that smug smile off his face."

"Ah, I get it." Dimitri turned in his chair once more, "It's hard to have feelings for someone you cannot be with."

"I don't have feelings for her! I just...care about her, as a friend," Izuku protested as he looked away.

"Sure you do… Go see her Izuku, it will be good for you."

"Alright fine, but only because you said so."

  
  


**\--**

  
  


"Coming!" Setsuna called to the person knocking on her door, the last of her boxes were sitting in the living room to be taken out to the truck, but right now she needed to see who was knocking.

She undid the locks and pulled the door open, only to see nothing there but a bouquet of Asiatic lilies. To her right, a man in a red hoodie had his hands stuffed in his pockets.

"Excuse me, did you see who dropped these off?"

The man froze for a few seconds, before continuing to walk away.

"Fuckin' rude," Setsuna grumbled to herself, it was only now that she realized there was a note attached to the flowers.

_ Good luck at U.A, I bought your favorite flowers to congratulate you. _

"That's strange, the only people who know what my favorite flower is are Mom, Dad, and…" Setsuna stopped and snapped her head to the space where the hooded man had once been.

"Oh no."

  
  


**\--**

  
  


"God damn, we look good," Kaen proudly remarked.

"Focus, Inferno, we can't afford to mess this up," Izuku warned.

"Hey guys, I just realized that we have no way of getting to the deal, it's eight blocks away, we'll never make it on foot," Umi pointed out.

The soft sound of jingling metal forced them to turn around to see Dimitri holding up a pair of keys.

  
  


**\--**

  
  


Dimitri's van creeped to a stop just a few feet from the trade-off site, prompting the six of them to quietly get out of the van and sneak towards the alley. Once there, they peered from around a corner.

"Were you followed?" A heavily tattooed man asked.

"No, of course not," a short and scrawny man said, a pair of black sunglasses covered his eyes, "And neither were my guards."

"Fine then, hand over the product." One of the beefy men accompanying the scrawny one opened the back doors to a truck and pulled out a large red suitcase. The man unzipped it and revealed tons of small three inch by three inch packets, a picture of a skinny red serpent stamped onto each of them.

_ Clang _

Kaen and Kesseki's eyes went wide, their faces contorted in fear, and their weapons fell from their hands.

"Dammit! You said you weren't followed!" The tattooed man yelled.

"I wasn't," the scrawny one replied in a monotone voice.

Izuku stepped out and drew his gun but the scrawny man kicked his revolver away with surprising speed.

Teki released the safety on her wrist turrets and fired at one of the bodyguards. Unfortunately, her shot missed, ricocheting off of the wall and hitting Izuku in the shoulder, sending him to the ground.

The scrawny man pulled a grenade from his skin, he tossed it up in the air where it quickly exploded.

The world around Izuku became fuzzy, sounds muted themselves, and his breaths became quick and shallow. His head was throbbing, he couldn't move.

_ 'Not the best time to be having a panic attack Izuku,'  _ He thought to himself as he attempted to make his own body move.

Zen was near the back, attempting to get a clear shot on anyone, but the chaos in the alley was making it extremely difficult to do so. Just as he was about to pull the trigger someone would move in the way.

Completely out of left field, the tattooed man laid him out good, the purple-eyed man's head slamming against a brick wall, disorienting him heavily.

Umi groaned internally as she watched Teki hit the floor, everybody else had been knocked out of commission, and by the rumbling of the ground beneath her…

She was next.

The concrete split open and a giant tentacle rock tossed his a few feet into the air, causing the wind to get knocked out of her upon coming back down.

"Word to the wise, you masked freaks." the tattooed man leaned, down over Umi as the others loaded the suitcase, and themselves, into his van. "Don't fuck with the Steele Serpent."

The tattooed man got in his van, started it up and pulled out of the alle-

_ Crash _

Dimitri let out a mighty yell as he plowed through the other van as fast as he could feasibly go, pushing it all the way to a nearby traffic stop, where the sudden stop in momentum sent them tumbling.

The scrawny man crawled from the back doors of the vehicle. He attempted to run, but Dimitri turned his head just in time to see Izuku shoot him through the calf.

The two locked eyes and nodded as Dimitri stepped out from the van, helping Izuku get everyone back in the van.

By the time they had gotten Zen in the van, the police sirens sounded like they were just a few blocks away.

  
  


**\--**

  
  


Izuku yelled as he yanked his mask off and threw it into a corner, before running his fingers through his hair in frustration.

"You need to calm down, we got them in the end," Dimitri said, handing an ice pack to Zen.

"They came this close to getting away, don't tell me to calm down!" Izuku held his fingers mere inches apart to illustrate his point.

"Of course this mission would go awry, it had to happen eventually. You do not have the proper synergy as a team, you do not trust each other like you should," Dimitri explained.

"You wanna talk about trust old man?!" Izuku spun of his heel and stared down the Russian, "Okay, let's start with why you don't trust us enough to tell us where you keep getting this high-grade military tech, or the ungodly material that makes these suits, or why you're helping us in the first place?! Cause I speak from experience and nobody helps quirkless people, unless they themselves are quirkless, or they have some kind of ulterior motive. So let me just be the first to ask...What the fuck are you hiding?"

"You don't get to say Jack-shit about secrets, Izuku!" Umi stood up so fast that her chair knocked onto the ground, "If we're supposed to tell each other everything about ourselves, then explain what happened to your face, or why you froze in that alley when the explosion went off? If anybody needs to give us an explanation as to who they really are, it's you!"

"Guys, stop! We shouldn't be fighting right now," Teki cut in before Izuku could respond.

There was a long beat of silence, before Izuku sighed, "No, no I'm done. This was a bad idea. I'm sorry I dragged you all into this." He then stormed off up the stairs.

"I'll go talk to him." Zen followed Izuku up the stairs a few minutes later.

Izuku was sitting in a chair, seemingly contemplating a bottle of vodka. Zen walked up behind him and snatched it away, "You're way too young to be drinking that shit."

"Well I hear it's great for drowning away your sorrows," Izuku mumbled.

"Why are you being so depressed dude? This is one hiccup in a long road. It's like Dimitri said; we were bound to have a mission go wrong eventually. But you're our leader, if you give up this easy, then so will everyone else," Zen explained.

"I'm not your leader," Izuku chuckled dryly.

"By default you are, you put this band of morons together. You need to take responsibility. Just tell them the truth," Zen said.

  
  


**\--**

  
  


"Alright," Izuku began as he sat down, "No more secrets, if you have something to say, you better get it out now, because if I find out one of you is keeping something hidden, you're out. Understand?"

Everybody nodded silently, prompting Izuku to take in a deep breath, "I don't know what happened to my face, nor do I know why I froze in the alley. Truth is I have trouble remember anything after my fifteenth birthday."

They sat in silence for a while, simply soaking in the information, before—

"That shit ain't Trigger," Kaen suddenly whispered.

"What?" 

"That drug, it isn't Trigger. It's something far worse," Kesseki clarified.

"Worse how?" Izuku asked.

"I don't know, but it's what took Kesseki's quirk."

"What?!"

"We were...stupid back in college, experimented with a lot of shit that we shouldn't of. One night, me and Kesseki were at a party, some guy offered us a packet with a red snake on it."

"We took it, got us real high real fast. Later that night, I got in a fight with some guy, he pulled a gun and shot me in the shoulder. Luckily a friend of ours was studying to be a paramedic was able to bring him to the hospital without, and I got patched up, but they told Kaen they'd have to tell the police about the drugs."

"Somehow, we only got a year of community service but…"

"But when I woke up, I didn't have my quirk anymore, neither could everybody else who took the drug that night. Whatever that shit is, it's the exact opposite of Trigger," Kesseki finished with a scowl.

"I guess that means it is my turn," Dimitri sighed, "My real reason for aiding you, is to do right by my Цветок. My Tatyana."

Izuku eyed his wedding ring on his finger, "Your wife?"

"Yes. She was...the most extraordinary woman I have ever met. She was quirkless, like you all. Plus she was intelligent, I wouldn't have the slightest clue as to how to run this place if it wasn't for her." Dimitri's eyes filled with sadness, "But those  _ Ублюдки _ of my hometown! They took her from me in the dead of night...and killed her in the streets."

"Jesus Christ," Umi whispered.

"I swore revenge on them, and one day, as I wandered through my home country, I met a man, and told him my sorry tale, which is when he revealed his incredible quirk to me: the ability to transfer quirks from one person to another. In exchange for granting me the ability to enact my revenge, he wanted me to make him...a suit, one that would protect him against almost anything. I had an over abundance of the material the suit was made of, so I used the rest to make your outfits. And after that is when he gave me my quirks."

The group sat completely still, ensnared in the Russian's story.

"The first was an upgrade to my original quirk, not only can I control thread, but I can bend metal and technology to my will as well, I used it to make your weapons. Then, he gave me…" Dimitri trailed off as he picked up a baseball, "Imbue." he chucked the baseball at a wall, and an explosion of frost followed the impact.

"If I so wish, anything I touch becomes imbued with an element of my choice. With these new powers, I returned to my village," Dimitri hit a button on his key fob, one of the walls shifted, revealing a mannequin wearing a grey bodysuit, with plated black armour covering most of it, a pair of sonar goggles rested on the head, a dark green symbol of a gecko was sprawled out on the chest, and a plethora of guns and knives lined the grid wall behind the mannequin. "I killed every man and woman in that village...and not a day goes by where I don't regret it."

"So that's why you're helping us. You don't want what happened to your wife to happen to anyone else," Kesseki realized.

"You are correct, my friend."

"Thank you, Dimitri, for telling us that, and I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier," Izuku apologized.

"Do not be, I probably would have done the same thing in my younger years," he solemnly chuckled.

"Ok, is that everyone, or does someone else have something they'd like to say?" Umi asked.

Teki shifted her eyes around, before saying, "Me and Zen had sex last night."

"Oh Jesus Christ."

"You two have known each other for like...four days, how is that even possible?"

"Ok, that's it, get out of my basement."

"You two are gross."

"I second that."

"You guys are just a bunch of fuckin' prudes," Zen groaned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And done, this might be my longest chapter yet, and I'm not sure of the pay off was equal to the mental exhaustion. Obviously I made the discrimination of quirkless people a lot worse than it probably is, but at the same time, I need reason for people to want to actually rebel other than 'people think we're weak'. These are the main discords I hang out in if you want to talk to me about my fics directly
> 
> The Hoard: https://discord.gg/Bpv93a
> 
> LoM: https://discord.gg/R9BU25t
> 
> That's it for now, Peace


	6. Revelations

Nemuri smiled as Inko opened up the door to her apartment, she waved slightly and raised up the bottle of wine she had in her other hand, silently asking for permission to come inside.

At first Nemuri was coming by simply to get clues as to where Izuku may be, but then she started coming because she liked being near Inko. Something about the green-haired woman just made her feel...safe.

The two had become close friends seemingly overnight and told each other almost everything. Whether it be something like Nemuri's first fight with a villain or Inko's story about Izuku learning to walk.

Ever since the two had started to hang out, Inko's form began to look better, she was no longer pale, the bags under her eyes were gone, and she wasn't as thin as she was when they first met. Most of these things were probably due to Nemuri forcing her to take care of herself.

Although Nemuri felt guilty every time she visited the woman, like she didn't deserve to be there. 

_ 'After all, I'm responsible for what happened to her son,' _ Nemuri thought to herself.

"Kayama, are you ok?" Inko asked, breaking her out of her thoughts.

"I'm fine Midoriya," she said, "Now come on, this bottle won't empty itself!"

**_One hour later_ **

Nemuri giggled as Inko finished up her story about what she had said was her most embarrassing volleyball loss from when she played in highschool. The wine bottle was half empty and the two had drunk blushes on their face.

"I'm telling you, the welt covered my whole face!" Inko couldn't stop her laughing.

"There's no way. A dodgeball could maybe do that but not a volleyball!" Nemuri insisted.

"I don't know how it happened but I'm telling the truth!"

Nemuri didn't even bother to respond, she just fell over laughing.

"So, classes at U.A. start soon right?" Inko asked through her tears.

"Yeah, I'm the homeroom teacher for 1-B." She explained, "I don't like making assumptions about my students but there's this one recommendation kid, Setsuna Tokage, that shows a lot of promise as a future hero!"

"Oh I know her!" Inko said.

"You do?"

"Yes, she took care of Izuku while he was in the hospital," Inko answered with a small smile. The room fell silent for a bit at the mention of her son, as it usually did.

"I'm gonna find him," Nemuri said after a while, "You know that, right? I'm so close to a breakthrough I can feel it. Something big is gonna happen soon, and it's gonna lead me to him!"

"I know you'll find him. But I also know that my son can handle himself, wherever he is now—"

Across the city a mugger was knocked unconscious by the handle of Izuku's gun.

"He's doing just fine."

  
  


**\--**

  
  


"NOW YOU'RE LOOKING LIKE HEROES!" All Might yelled from the top of his lungs at the young hero hopefuls.

Setsuna gazed down at her hero costume once more, admiring what it did for her assets. It was just a basic bodysuit and face mask that looked and felt like scales, she had considered making it blue but decided that a dark green color suited her better.

"NOW, PLEASE ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN THIS EXERCISE AND WE CAN GET RIGHT DOWN TO THE NITTY GRITTY. EACH TEAM WILL BE COMPRISED OF A MEMBER FROM 1-B AND 1-A. THEN WE SHALL PIT TWO TEAMS AGAINST EACH OTHER, HEROES VERSUS VILLAINS!" All Might took a swig of water and continued his yelling, "THE VILLAIN TEAM WILL BE IN THE POSSESSION OF A BOMB, IT'S UP TO THE HERO TEAM TO STOP THEM. IF THE VILLAINS GET CAPTURED BY THE CAPTURE TAPE YOU HAVE ALL BEEN GIVEN, OR IF THE HEROES TOUCH THE BOMB, THEY WIN. BUT IF THE HEROES GET CAPTURED, OR THE TIMER RUNS OUT, THE VILLAINS WIN. IS THIS CLEAR?"

Everybody nodded, slightly thankful that his yelling was over.

"Good, now step up, grab a card, and find your teammate with the same number!"

Setsuna got paired with a girl by the name of Ochako Uraraka, a bubbly girl with hazel eyes and brown hair in a bob. Her hero costume consisted of a pink and black bodysuit, a pink visor of sorts, pink boots that went halfway up her calf, and pink bracers.

"You sure do like that color," Setsuna pointed out.

"Oh, yeah, it makes me think of space whenever I look at it. I can't explain why," Ochako chuckled.

As they waited for the exercise to actually start, Setsuna noticed Ochako's gaze wander to a petite girl with short purple hair. Her hero costume was a loose fitting leather jacket and pink shirt, leather pants, and a pair of boots with what looked to be speakers on them, a headphone jack dangled from each of her ears and a tiny red triangles had been painted under her eyes.

She was partnered with a guy from her class, a guy named Neito Monama, a man with blonde hair, periwinkle eyes, and a superiority complex. Neito's hero costume was a pair of dress shoes, black dress pants, a white button up shirt, a tie the same color as his eyes, a golden monocle, and a black tailcoat.

Setsuna looked from Ochako, to the purple-haired girl, and back to Ochako, before squealing in excitement as she finally recognized the look in her partner's eyes.

"Damn, it's only the second day and you've already got a crush on that chick!" Setsuna teased.

Ochako went beet red and covered up her face with her hands, her pinkies sticking up, "Tokage please don't tell anyone!" She cried, her voice muffled by her hands.

"Oh don't worry, I'm not evil. I'm simply gonna tease you about it until you confess is all," Setsuna smirked.

Before she got a chance to mess with Ochako further, All Might called their attention.

"I shall now pick the first set of teams, so prepare yourselves!" All Might reached into a box and pulled out a white ball with a black 'D' on it, and a black ball with a white 'A' on it, "AND IT'S HERO TEAM D VERSUS VILLAIN TEAM A!"

Setsuna's head turned to the left to see who they were up against. One of them was Shiozaki Ibara, a holy girl with thorny green vines for hair, her hero costume was a simple baggy white robe that exposed a little bit of her shoulders. The other was a boy with spiky blonde hair and crimson colored eyes, his hero costume was a black leotard with orange accents, he had a black mask that covered his eyes and forehead, and he had two big grenade looking gauntlets on his forearms.

"I have a feeling this isn't gonna end well," Setsuna groaned to Ochako, who nodded in agreement.

  
  


**\--**

  
  


"Ok, so I have a plan," Setsuna told Ochako.

"Already?" Ochako asked in bewilderment.

"Yeah, that blonde guy, Katsuki Bakugou did you say his name was? Well he seems like the volatile type, so I'll draw him out, and you go after the bomb. Although I suggest you be quiet around Ibara, one wrong move and it's all over," Setsuna warned.

"I was built for stealth!" Ochako cheered, pumping her fist in the air.

"Not with that costume you're not," Setsuna chuckled.

"I suppose I should warn you too, Bakugou's explosions are pretty strong," Ochako said.

"I can split my body apart, his explosions will literally go right through me!" Setsuna reassured her.

The buzzer rang and the two headed into the building, cautiously walking through the dark halls and up a flight of stairs to the second floor. Suddenly a wall exploded next to them and Katsuki stepped out from the whole, bearing his teeth at them.

"Go!" Setsuna sent out her fist and hit Katsuki across the face, putting his attention on her and giving Ochako a chance to run.

Setsuna pulled her fist back and charged at him, tackling him into the room he came out of.

She attempted to hit him with a detached fist once more, but he caught it before it could reach, creating and explosion in his palm to burn her arm.

"Come on then, you have to do better than that to beat me. You're almost holding back as much as those extras back at Aldera!" Katsuki taunted.

Setsuna's world slowed as she processed what he said,  _ 'The red eyes and the explosions from Izuku's nightmares. Plus he went to Aldera. It can't possibly...but how likely is it that anybody else at that school would have those characteristics. No...it's his fault!' _

Setsuna hand flew off of her body and ripped a rebar out of the rubble from the destroyed wall, she brought it back to her and began to swing wildly at Katsuki, who began blocking with his gauntlets.

"It's your fault!" 

_ "Young Tokage, you could seriously injure young Bakugou, cease this immediately or your team shall be disqualified!" _

Setsuna ignored their teacher, her rage blinding her to everything but getting revenge on behalf of Izuku.

"How could you do something like that to him?! He's the sweetest person on earth and you bully him to the point of suicide!" Setsuna continued to yell as she assaulted him.

"You don't know anything!" Katsuki screamed back at her.

"Of course I do you bastard because I'm the one that took care of him after he jumped out that window!" Setsuna broke through his defenses and slammed the rebar against his chest, sending him to the ground.

"Why the hell would you ever hurt him like that!?"

"BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT TO SEE HIM DEAD!"

The room fell silent and Setsuna's stance slackened slightly.

"I know what I did was irredeemable, I know, and I wish that I would have found a better way to deter him from being a hero. But he's not strong like you and me, he'd die before he could even become a full hero don't you get that?!" Katsuki asked, his tone shows his defeat.

"You're wrong." Setsuna dropped the rebar and pulled out her capture tape, wrapping it around Katsuki, "He's stronger than both of us."

_ "HERO TEAM WINS!"  _ All Might announced through the speakers.

Setsuna untied Katsuki and began to walk away, before his call stopped her, "Tokage!"

"What!?"

"I know that he doesn't remember, but if you ever see him again. Don't tell him what I did. I want to do that myself," Katsuki said.

"...fine, you deserve at least that much." And with that, Setsuna left Katsuki to brew in his thoughts.

  
  


**\--**

  
  


Finally it was the end of the day, a hectic one too, the media had caused a crisis at U.A. by breaching the gate. Class 1-A and 1-B were now hanging out in their dorms. The girls were currently playing a game of truth or dare in Momo Yaoyorozu's room, a girl with long black hair tied back in a spiky ponytail.

"Ok, Jirou, truth or dare?" Momo asked the purple-haired girl from earlier, who's name Setsuna had learned was Kyouka Jirou.

"Dare I guess," Kyouka shrugged.

"I dare you to sit in Uraraka's lap for the rest of the game," Setsuna said with a sly smirk.

They both blushed obviously, with Kyouka's being a simple dusting of pink to her cheeks, and Uraraka going completely red. But the dare was carried out nonetheless, and Kyouka crawled into the space between Ochako's legs.

"Alright, my turn, Ashido truth or dare?" Kyouka asked.

"Truth!" A girl with pink skin, fluffy pink hair, and two horns sprouting from her head, Mina Ashido, excitedly answered.

"Is Kirishima gay?" This came from a girl with orange hair, Itsuka Kendo, "I've just been getting those vibes and I wanna know before I try and shoot my shot."

"Oh yeah, he's gay. Kiri works fast too I wouldn't be surprised if he's having sex right now," Mina told her, eliciting a groan from Itsuka.

"Ok, Tokage's turn, truth or dare!"

"Truth."

"Kero, would you like to explain why you went full Rambo on that Bakugou dude yesterday?" A girl with long green hair, Tsuyu Asui, croaked.

Setsuna dryly chuckled, "I should've expected this. Bakugou… hurt someone who's very close to me, and I just feel this need to protect him y'know?"

"You beat with metal rod, how important was he?" A girl with large horns and blonde hair, Pony Tsunutori, said in broken Japanese.

"I worked at a hospital and took care of him while he stayed there. I remember sometimes I wouldn't get a lunch break and we'd share that shitty hospital food. He had the cutest laugh too," Setsuna lost herself in her thoughts of the green haired boy.

"Ok girl we get it, you're in love with the dude," a floating set of clothes, Toru Hagakure, teased.

Setsuna chuckled, "I think I'm gonna go to bed, I'll see you all in the, I hear we're going on some kind of field trip." She walked to the door and left the rest of the girl's in Momo's room.

Setsuna blew a strand of hair out of her face and slid down to the ground with her back to the door. Talking about Izuku had stirred something up in her that she didn't like, especially what Toru said to her.

_ 'Hagakure couldn't have been right, I can't have a crush on Izuku,'  _ she tried to rationalize with herself.

Setsuna's eyes slowly moved over to Izuku's mask, and she remembered the first time she saw Izuku wearing it.

**\--**

"Oh your Majesty!" Setsuna called as she pushed the food cart in.

"Too loud," Izuku said, his voice sounded muffled for some reason.

"You know you love my theatrics and— what are you wearing?" Setsuna asked.

Izuku had a white face mask strapped over his face, he cleared his throat before answering, "The doctor told me it would be good for me. Plus it hides all the... ugliness."

Setsuna huffed to herself before walking up to him and gently taking the mask off of his face. Izuku tilted his head away from her but she just forced him to look at her, "You are not ugly, you are not a monster, and you do not need that mask, and anybody that tells you otherwise deserves a swift punch to the face."

It was small and barely noticeable, but she got a smile out of him, and that was all she needed, "Now eat, the doctor will be here soon and you know that he doesn't like people eating during her visits."

  
  


\--

  
  


Setsuna stood back up and wandered to her bed. She never realized how much she loved the feeling of making Izuku feel better until she could no longer do it. Once more, she let herself think back to a time before he disappeared.

  
  


**\--**

  
  


"Izuku please be careful. You don't have to do this, you know?" Setsuna pleaded.

"I'm fine!" Izuku snapped.

The two were in the physical therapy room, and Izuku was shakily holding himself up, preparing to walk without the use of the railing.

He let go of the rails and stumbled a bit, but he stayed up. The next few steps were just the same, Izuku almost toppling over, but then he found his balance and each step got more and more stable.

Finally, after a few minutes, Izuku reached the other side and launched himself at Setsuna, wrapping his arms around her. She could feel his happiness radiating off of his body and she couldn't help but hug him back, a warm feeling spreading through her chest.

  
  


**\--**

  
  


_ 'Oh god what if Hagakure was right?!'  _ Setsuna thought as she realized what exactly that warm feeling was.

She didn't get much sleep that night.

  
  


**\-- New York, 9:36 am**

  
  
  


Frank quietly knocked on the open door of Curtis's basement, where he held his sessions for the veterans.

"Frank, you missed the meeting," Curtis said without turning around.

"Yeah, I was busy." Frank wiped the last bit of blood off of his face.

"Don't worry, I saved you some coffee." Curtis grabbed the pot and poured the remains into two styrofoam cups, before handing one to his friend.

The two got to sit down for a few minutes, before someone came bursting into the room.

A pale man with curly, dirty blonde hair and a scruffy beard stood in front of them, he wore baggy clothing and seemed to be extremely nervous.

"David? It's been a while," Frank greeted.

"Frank, there's something you need to see," David's tone was shaky and scared as he pulled a VHS tape from his jacket. He began to look around for something before Curtis gave a whistle and threw a TV remote at him, which he barely caught.

David loaded the tape and pressed play, it seemed to be some kind of an international news channel, David fast forwarded a bit and paused on a chilling scene.

On the screen was a sketch of a cracked mask, identical to one worn by the person that Frank hated the most.

Billy Russo.

"Frank—" Curtis started to say something, but was cut off by Frank crushing the styrofoam cup in his hand, coating it in coffee.

"I see it Curt'."

  
  


**\--**

  
  


Dinah screamed as she hurled her coffee mug at the TV screen, cracking it and shattering the mug.

The homeland security agent moved swiftly through her apartment, wrecking everything in sight: chairs, vases, bowls, even her couch, it didn't matter. All that mattered in the moment was her rage.

The source of that rage?

The mask of Billy Russo.

  
  


**\-- Musutafu Japan, 12:46 pm**

  
  


Setsuna sighed as class 1-A and 1-B piled out of the bus that had taken them to the USJ. Ever since last night she hadn't been able to take her mind off of Izuku, or what Toru had said.

She was so out of it that she basically ignored what their instructor, a hero by the name of Thirteen, was saying.

Setsuna only focused back in when she saw Nemuri pull out her whip and Shouta pull his goggles down.

"Ms. Kayama, what's happening?" Setsuna asked, panic bubbling within her gut.

"The USJ is under attack, you kids fall back, we'll keep them busy." With that the two pro-heroes rushed down the stairs.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance," a polite but haunting voice said from behind them, the students turned around to face a large cloud of purple mist with huge yellow eyes, "My name is Kurogiri, and I have been tasked by the League of Villains to scatter you about and have the rest of our forces kill you. Now, meet your main tormentors!"

Six figures stepped from the mist man, wearing strange clothes and carrying weapons and wearing...masks with crack-like lines spanning across them.

"Izuku?" Setsuna quietly asked herself, "No, no this isn't right, this is bad."

Izuku reached into the overcoat he wore and drew a revolver, before quickly spinning on his heel and aiming at Kurogiri, the rest of the strangers following him.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Kurogiri bellowed.

"It's a mutiny." the red-masked stranger racked his shotgun, "What else does it look like?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as you can tell, shit's about to pop off. Here's a like to the two Discord servers I lurk about in if you would like to talk to me about my fics directly:
> 
> The Hoard: https://discord.gg/nrV7eh
> 
> LoM: https://discord.gg/Zv9NWX
> 
> That's it for now, peace.


	7. USJ: Confrontation

"Dimitri, you sure this is a good idea?" Teki whispered, not wanting to be heard in the crowd of thugs.

"Their leader still thinks I work for him, and he also thinks that you work for me. We won't be caught before everything goes down," Dimitri reassured them.

"I still don't like this. We should back out while we have the chance," Izuku said.

"We could be the difference between one of those kids living or dying. We have to do this Jigsaw," Zen argued.

Izuku paused for a moment before nodding in agreement, "You're right. But just know that this is where shit gets official. U.A won't be too happy that a group of vigilantes broke into their school, and the press is definitely gonna get one of the students to talk about us."

"Wasn't that the plan in the first place?" Kaen asked, a jovial tone in his voice.

A smile spread across Izuku's scarred face, but it immediately fell when he noticed someone moving towards them through the crowd, "Masks," he ordered, prompting the other quirkless to cover their faces.

"So, you're the quirkless mercenaries that Dimitri brought?" A man with pale blue hair questioned. He wore all black and his skin was cracked and dusty, his entire body was covered in severed hands, mainly in areas where the joints were, "Let me ask again why I should let worthless pawns into my league?"

"Because we have the same goal: dismantling the hero society, and by the looks at the 'army' you've assembled, you need all the help you can get here. 'Cause All Might will wipe out these guys in a second," Zen answered.

"I don't need their help or yours, I have an All Might killer in my party, what use could you possibly be?" hand man asked.

"All Might may not be in his prime, but he's not weak either, he can still change the weather with a single punch. Trust me, anything you have will be beaten by him, especially since he'll most definitely have the help of some of the hero students. But if we keep them busy, then your 'All Might killer can focus on his job," Izuku said.

"How would you guys keep those brats busy?" hand man scoffed.

"Like you said, we're quirkless, and we're seen as weaker than everybody else. The hero students will pull their punches because they obviously don't want to hurt the poor weak quirkless people," Umi said mockingly.

Hand man stopped for a few seconds before cackling loudly, "Kurogiri, put the quirkless on the front line!" He yelled out to a man seemingly made of purple mist.

"Of course Master Tomura," Kurogiri called back.

"See you there, quirkless," Tomura cackled as he walked off.

"Nice one," Dimitri smiled.

"Guess this is it," Kesseki sighed.

"I will find a way to get into U.A and get you out once you have finished. Good luck, you'll need it," Dimitri waved goodbye before exiting the warehouse they were congregated in.

"Everybody ready?" Izuku checked his revolver one last time before holstering it in his overcoat.

"Not in the slightest," Teki whispered, an aura of nervousness floated about the six of them.

"Good," Izuku chuckled as a portal of purple mist appeared in front of them all and the villains began to pile into it, "Let's go make a name for ourselves."

  
  


**\--**

  
  


"Now, meet some of your tormentors," Kurogiri said and he let them step through a portal facing the hero students.

A few seconds after they stepped through, Izuku nodded to the others and they instantly whirled around to face Kurogiri.

"What is the meaning of this?!" The mist asked.

"It's a mutiny—" Kaen racked his shotgun with malicious intent, "What else does it look like?" 

"Focus, Inferno," Izuku chastised.

Kurogiri growled before screaming, "You think you can harm smoke!?"

Izuku pulled back the hammer on his gun, "No harm in trying is there?"

He fired a bullet at where he assumed Kurogiri's side was, only to feel a sting of great pain in his calf, he peered over his shoulder just in time to see a smoky purple portal close.

"I knew trusting that feckless old Russian was a bad idea. If you will not help us kill these hero hopefuls, THEN YOU SHALL DIE ALONGSIDE THEM!"

Purple mist swirled around the vigilantes and most of the hero students, limiting their vision and sending a chill down their bone. Izuku felt the ground give way from him and braced himself for the impact that was bound to come.

Izuku's back hit the ground and tumbled a bit, he hissed when he stood back up and tried to regain his bearings, the wound in his leg almost crippling.

He paused as his eyes came across a sight that made his stomach drop. She was wearing a dark green bodysuit that looked like scales, her hair was braided and hung over her shoulder, and even with the betrayed look in her eyes, Setsuna was still the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.

Izuku slowly removed his mask and pulled his hood down, "I know that you're mad at me right now but if you'll just let me—"

"Mad?! I'm not mad I'm fucking seething! What the hell are you doing here, what are you wearing, who were those people you were with?!" Setsuna yelled, he voice carrying across the vast mountain area.

"I'm not gonna sugarcoat anything, we're vigilantes, they're quirkless like me. We're trying to prove that we're not as useless as everybody says we are."

"Are you insane?! You're gonna get yourself killed!"

"You don't think I know that? It's why I'm not doing this alone, we watch each other's backs." Izuku could feel his voice raising to her decibel.

"So you trust a group of strangers more than me?!" Setsuna sounded so upset that it was starting to hurt him.

"What does that have to do with anything?! Of course I trust you more, but you would've just dragged me back to that hospital, I'm not going back there!" Izuku sighed and moved closer to her, "Setsuna, for the first time in my life I feel like I'm doing something worthwhile. For the first time the headaches are gone, and the nightmares aren't every night now. I wish we could talk more but right now we need to get out of here."

Setsuna wiped a stray tear from her eye, "This isn't over I hope you know that."

"I know," Izuku said.

"Setsuna? Is that you?" A voice called from a few feet behind him. Immediately he pulled up his hood and threw his mask back on.

He regretted turning around, as the minute he did he was met with pair of sparking hands.

"Don't move dude," a boy with yellow hair said threateningly.

"Kaminari stand down," Setsuna sighed.

Denki Kaminari looked between Setsuna and Izuku a couple times, before withdrawing his hands.

"Yaomomo, Kyo, Kaminari, this is—"

"Jigsaw," Izuku said, cutting her off.

"Ah, vigilante, that's sick man," Denki stuck his hand out, which Izuku hesitantly shook.

"Even if he is a vigilante we should still capture him and turn him in to the authorities," Momo chided.

"Or, you could not do that and we could focus on getting out of here," Izuku suggested.

"As much as I don't trust him he's right, it's easier for us to get back in a big group," Kyouka said.

Momo seemed hesitant to accept but did so after a few seconds, and the five of them proceeded to make their way to the center of the USJ.

"So that's what you're going by now, Jigsaw?" Setsuna snidely whispered.

"Can we not do this here?" Izuku whispered back.

"Well I don't know when I'm ever gonna see you again so it seems like the perfect time," Setsuna bit back.

Izuku looked away from her but even with the mask she could see the guilt in his eyes, she felt a pang in her heart that made her pull back, joining the other three in the back of the group.

"So you two clearly know each other," Denki deadpanned, earning himself a thwack to the head courtesy of Kyouka.

"Yeah, we do. I don't really wanna talk about it," Setsuna muttered.

Suddenly, Momo stepped in front of them all, "You know you're bleeding, right?"

It was true, a streak of crimson was trailing down his jeans, "It's what happens when you try to shoot smoke apparently," Izuku chuckled.

"We should stop, that bullet could still be in you. You shouldn't let it get infected," Setsuna quietly told him.

"I would but I don't exactly think there's a medkit nearby," Izuku hissed in pain as he put too much pressure on his leg.

Momo tapped him on the shoulder and showed him the medkit she had produced, "Please, this will be easier if you let us help you."

Izuku sat down and pulled up his pants leg, hissing as the fabric scraped against his open flesh. Momo kneeled down in front of him and began tending to his wound, painting the area with an antiseptic as Setsuna sat next to him and subtlety grabbed his hand.

Izuku bit down on his lip to hold in his scream as Momo fished the bullet from his leg with a pair of tweezers, prompting Setsuna to squeeze his hand. 

Momo bandaged his hole and stood back up, "I will, uh, give you two a minute."

The two of them sat in silence, completely motionless and fingers still interlocked. 

Setsuna was the first to speak up, "If you didn't want to stay in that hospital I would've—" she sighed and a tear dropped off her face, "You didn't even say goodbye."

"I wanted to. I wanted to, so bad, but I knew if I tried I'd never be able to leave," Izuku said.

They fell silent again, "Setsuna, I—" Izuku started.

An explosion went off in the distance, stopping Izuku and sending him into a catatonic state. Setsuna snapped in front of his face a few times but to no avail. Izuku then stood up and began walking towards the source of the explosion.

  
  


**\--**

  
  


Kesseki grunted as he used his hammer to block an attack from a red-headed kid whose skin looked like it was made of jagged stones.

"Cool it man, I'm on your side!" Kesseki swung his hammer and hit the kid in the cheek, causing him to stumble a bit.

Eijirou Kirishima cracked his neck and got back into a fighting stance, "Yeah, the fact that you just tried to slug me with a hammer doesn't really help your case."

"You attacked me first!"

"Can we all calm down for a moment," Jurota Shinshida tried to reason, he was covered in thick brown fur, wore a pair of rectangular glasses, and his bottom canines stuck out above his lip.

"Fuck that werewolf, wether this guy is a villain or not I'm still gonna pound him into the pavement!" Katsuki yelled.

"Is he always this aggressive?" Kesseki asked Jurota.

"I do not know him well enough to say," the hairy man responded.

"KATSUKI!" a voice rang out above the raging fires that surrounded them.

Kesseki turned his head to see Izuku stomping towards them, he sighed with relief, "Don't worry, this guy's on our side."

As soon as the words left his mouth Izuku pulled his revolver and let a bullet fly into Katsuki's shoulder.

"Our side, huh?" Eijirou sarcastically asked.

Katsuki snarled as he let a few explosions crackle in his palms. 

Both men screamed as they charged each other, Katsuki getting the immediate upper hand by grabbing Izuku's face.

"Let's see the ugly mug under that mask," Katsuki growled as he let an explosion rip from his hand.

Izuku fell to the ground writhing in pain, Kesseki was about to step in when Izuku held his hand up, making him stop. The green-haired boy flipped from his side to kneeling on the ground and ripped the mask off of his face, revealing that a huge hole that had been blasted in the right eye-hole.

"YOU DID THIS TO ME!" Izuku shouted, causing Katsuki to freeze in his place and allowing him to get back up and retaliate.

Izuku grabbed his hatchet and swung it down into Katsuki's thigh, before shooting back up and swinging the hatchet down on his large grenade gauntlets, over, and over, and over again until it finally couldn't take it anymore and a huge gash was torn into it that sent sparks flying all over the place.

He kicked Katsuki in the stomach, but before he could fall on the ground, Izuku grabbed him by his collar, holding the hatchet in the air and preparing to bring it down.

"Tell me it wasn't you man. Tell me that you didn't do this to me," Izuku weakly pleaded, his hand was trembling, causing his hatchet to as well, "TELL ME!... _ please _ "

Everything fell quiet, four more hero students rounded the corner and stopped the minute they saw the situation, even the fire raging around them seemed to hush to see what would happen next.

It was so quiet that you could even hear the tear that fell from Katsuki's face to the pavement.

"I can't," Katsuki solemnly whispered.

Izuku held his hatchet up a bit higher, but he didn't bring it back down, it was almost like he couldn't. After a full minute, Izuku dropped the hatchet and let go of Katsuki, letting him fall on his back and slowly get back up.

"Let's go. We can't stay here anymore." Izuku picked up his mask and slipped it back on. 

"You good?" Kesseki asked.

"...No."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello heathens and heretics, I hope the week has been good to you because it sure as hell hasn't been good to me. Here's a link to the two discord servers I lurk in the most:
> 
> The Hoard: https://discord.gg/dkrE77m
> 
> LoM: https://discord.gg/R9BU25t
> 
> That's it for now, Peace.


	8. USJ: Climax

Izuku, Kesseki, and their two groups of hero students took cover behind a large rock near the center of the USJ. In the very center, a man with long black hair was laying face down, Tomura stood over him, Kurogiri was lurking behind him, and to his left was a large hulking black mass, its eyes were vacant and deranged, its brain was exposed and its tongue lolled out of its beak mouth.

"What the hell is that thing?" Denki whispered.

"...An All Might killer," Izuku realized.

"We need to get Aizawa out of there," Momo gasped.

"I've got a plan." Zen's voice said from out of nowhere. One by one: he, Teki, and Kaen jumped out from behind a rock, landing next to them and taking cover.

"You doing all right, Stone?" Kaen asked.

"I'm fine brother, just wish I was the one with the shotgun," Kesseki grinned.

"We've got to distract that thing until reinforcements arrive, and long enough for a few of the hero kids to get that guy to safety," Zen told everyone.

"Well you better explain it quick, we need to save him now." Umi joined them, leading a group of three students behind her.

"Ochako, are you ok?" Kyouka asked?

"I'm fine," a girl with brown hair in a bob answered.

"I've been watching that thing for a bit now, I don't think it can act independently, I think it follows Tomura's orders. So if a few of the hero students keep him busy, the rest can go and get the hobo out of here. Meanwhile, the six of us have to take turns hitting the Nomu to keep it off balance, keep it distracted," Zen explained.

"With Tomura distracted with defending himself, he won't be able to tell it to focus on one of us," Izuku nodded.

"Right, but to do this, we can't let it hit any of us, so once somebody hits it, somebody else needs to hit it again. Coordination is key here," Teki said.

"No fucking way, you guys are quirkless, there's no way you'll be able to take that thing on," a short boy with purple balls on his head whisper-shouted.

"You guys are all quirkless, what the hell are you doing here?!" Denki whisper-shouted right back.

Izuku looked up to Setsuna and nodded assuringly, "Let's do this." Izuku pointed at the three girls he had met on the mountain, "You three take care of Tomura. Katsuki and you with the red hair, keep the mist guy down. The rest of you make sure Erasurehead get out of here safe—"

The rock they were hiding behind rumbled as it was lifted up to reveal the Nomu staring down at them, it threw the rock and reared its fist back, aiming for Ochako.

"No!" Kyouka yelled, putting herself in-between the fist and the brunette.

Izuku bolted upright before the collision and shouted, "GO!" Before he fired off his revolver and ran to avoid the swing it took at him.

Nomu turned to him and screeched but was cut off as Kesskei walloped it in the face and ran off. When Nomu went to chase him, it was met with the sharp end of Umi's trident stabbing into its chest as its back was riddled with bullets from Teki's wrist rifles.

"Nomu, focus on— DAMN IT!" Tomura stumbled back as Setsuna bopped him in the face with a baseball bat.

Momo brandished a bo staff and Kyouka held out a machete, and all three of them had their targets set on Tomura.

"Fine," the man baby grumbled, "I'll turn you to dust before I have Nomu kill those quirkless bastards!"

"Eirene!" Izuku shouted, grabbing her attention. Izuku charged towards her and Umi did the same. Once they were both behind Nomu, Izuku slid to the ground and used his hatchet to cut up its Achilles tendon, as Umi dragged her trident along its back, he fired off his gun once more, but all their attacks seemed to do was make the beast react to the impact.

"It's got shock absorbance and super healing, dumbasses. There's no way you're putting down my Nomu— ompf!" Tomura's bragging was promptly shut up when Momo hit him in the stomach with her staff.

"Well that just means we don't have to hold back!" Kesseki yelled as he hit Nomu in the head, hard enough to snap a normal human's neck. Kaen followed up with a shotgun blast to its bottom jaw, which sent its beak pointing upwards, Kesseki brought his hammer down for Kaen to step on and launched him skywards, where he hit the Nomu with one last shotgun blast.

Slowly, the Nomu reached up, grabbed it's head, and snapped it back into place, it attempted to swing its fist down on Kesseki but was stopped when a tranquilizer dart was lodged in its eye. It pulled it out just in time for Zen to punch it in its injured eye.

The Nomu spread its arms out to squash Zen, but he dropped down just in time to avoid the hail of bullets Teki fired into the Nomu.

Izuku threw his hatchet at the Nomu, hitting its shoulder before running up to retrieve it and hacking into its left arm twice.

Seemingly tired of the six of them, the Nomu slammed its fist into the ground, creating a shockwave that sent them all to the ground. Izuku got into a kneeling position and watched helplessly as the Nomu raised its fists above its head to bring down on him.

A loud boom was heard and one of the USJ doors went flying above them, crashing into the Nomu's raised arms and ripping them off. 

"HAVE NO FEAR!"

A large yellow figure landed in front of Izuku, standing between him and the Nomu.

"FOR I AM HERE!" All Might yelled proudly.

Izuku got to his feet, and called out to the others, "Take a step back, this is gonna get violent!"

The Nomu and All Might both turned into blurs as the clashed and Kurogiri snarled, "This is not going to plan!"

Portals opened up under Eijirou, Katsuki, Momo, Kyouka, and Setsuna which dropped them all in the water and he then wrapped himself around Tomura and they disappeared.

After a few minutes of clashing, All Might grabbed the Nomu by the neck and smiled as steam rose off his body, "You're strong, back in my hayday that would've taken three punches, that took two hundred! But this ends now!" All Might threw the Nomu in the air and slammed his fist into its stomach, sending it sailing out of the glass dome, its arm stubs flailing as it did.

"I think it's time to make our exit," Izuku whispered to the other vigilantes.

Zen had just thrown his sniper over his shoulder when a red sludge crashed into his body and glued him to the floor. A whip cracked against Izuku's face, stunning him.

"You have the right to remain silent!" A female voice yelled as a whip was wrapped around Izuku's torso.

A woman with long purple hair and blue eyes was now holding him captive, she wore a thin white bodysuit with black leather covering the lower half of her torso and her crotch, AKA the 18+ hero: Midnight.

"I'm going to take off your mask now," Midnight warned. Izuku thrashed around but to no avail, his mask was taken off of his face, and Midnight froze as she saw Izuku's face.

"W-What?" As Midnight whispered, Izuku felt the whip grow slack, so he mustered up all his strength and broke free, moving past the shocked Midnight and shooting the cowboy-looking man, Snipe, holding Teki down in the shoulder.

Teki punched him in the face once to get her off of her and then kicked him in the face to put him down.

"Joule, go get Inferno, then get Stone. I'll handle the other two!" Izuku shouted as he ran to her left.

Umi was being held by a man in a yellow mech suit, two thick wires led from his armoured arms to a backpack that was made of metal, this was the hero Power Loader.

Izuku used his hatchet to sever the wire on the left arm, giving Umi enough time to grab her trident and cut the wire on the right arm, they sparked and hissed and the pro-hero ceased to move.

Izuku helped her up and pointed her towards the others, "Go help them, I've got Void!"

"Be careful, Jigsaw," Umi told him.

"Always."

Izuku attempted to bum rush the man who was arresting Zen, but was soon covered in the same red sludge he was in, it smelled like metal. The pro was a man with short and spiky white hair, his bottom canines stuck out, he wore a blood red leotard, and a yellow mask over his face.

"Did you think you'd be able to take me on?!" Vlad King irritatedly asked.

"Void, follow my lead," Izuku said as he struggled to pull his arm up to his face, where he lifted his mask up just slightly, only enough to reveal his mouth and spat in Vlad King's eye, Zen did the same and Vlad dropped them to wipe at his face.

"Well that is just unsanitary," he grumbled.

Zen had managed to grab his sniper rifle and fired a tranq dart into Vlad's chest, which he plucked out as if it was harmless, "It's gonna take more than one tranquilizer dart to stop me—" two more darts hit Vlad, one in his neck, and another in his chest again, "Well, that would probably do it." Vlad stumbled a bit as he passed out.

The other four came running a second later and broke off the red stuff around them, letting Izuku stand up and motion for them to follow him.

"Time to bail!"

**\--**

It was the dead of night, everybody was asleep and just trying to calm down after what had happened. But not Setsuna, she was pacing around her room, worried, angry, and upset.

Once again, Izuku had left without even saying goodbye.

A knock on her window drew her attention, she watched as a pair of hands slipped under and lifted it up before Izuku stepped into her room, removing his hood and broken mask.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to say goodbye, I figure it's the right thing to do," Izuku answered.

"And your gang?"

"I told them to leave, that I'd find my own way out."

Setsuna scoffed, "So you're gonna take off and leave me behind again, right?"

"It's not like that, I didn't want to leave you but—"

"But what?" 

"But you deserve better than me, alright?!" Izuku yelled.

"If you really think that then maybe you can't be helped!" Setsuna shouted back, causing Izuku to pause.

"You're so used to being alone that you can't fathom the possibility of anybody actually caring about you. Well I'm not beating around the bush anymore because I love you damn it!" 

Izuku looked shocked for a few seconds, but then he turned his head away, "Nobody could love a monster like me."

Setsuna huffed and grabbed Izuku by his chin, "Izuku look at me."

The green haired boy refused.

"Look at me, or I'm gonna make you leave," Setsuna threatened.

Izuku complied this time and watched as Setsuna's face split apart, mimicking the scars on his face

"Am I hideous? Am I a monster?" She asked simply.

"No but—"

"I don't know what it's like to be you, Izuku. But I do know that you deserve happiness, and if you let me, I can give it to you. You never had to be alone." Setsuna wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest.

She felt a tear fall on her hair, and heard the faintest whisper of, "I love you too."

But even a whisper of those four words was all she ever needed.

**Smut time, get out of here children and go to the next line, go on get!**

Ochako took a deep breath, the plan was simple, knock on Kyouka's door, tell her how she felt, and accept the consequences that followed.

So why wasn't she saying anything and just staring at Kyouka in her doorway.

"You know you can come inside, right?" Kyouka asked.

"S-sorry," Ochako said.

She stepped inside her room and looked around at all the instruments hanging from the walls.

"So why are you here?"

"Well um, after what happened today there's some things that I realized I should be saying before... something happens to one of us," Ochako started.

"You want to confess your crush for me," Kyouka smiled.

"Wh-what?! How did you know?" Ochako stammered.

"Remember that sleepover the 1-A girls had yesterday. I heard you mumble it in your sleep," Kyouka explained.

"A-and?" Ochako nervously asked.

"And what you said about the USJ is true. I've got a crush on you as well, but let's not waste any time."

"What do you mean by that?"

Kyouka didn't say anything, she just grabbed Ochako by the face and mashed their lips together, and if that wasn't enough surprise, her tongue began to probe her mouth.

The punk girl began dragging Ochako to her bed, spinning them around and pinning her to the mattress. Kyouka proceeded to swifty remove her shirt and bury her face in Ochako's bra clad breasts.

"Your tits are so huge, I'm jealous," Kyouka lustfully whispered.

"Kyo—" Ochako whined.

"Shhh, just be a good girl and hold still," Kyouka told her.

Slowly, the purple haired girl began to trail kisses down her stomach, stopping for a brief period around her crotch to remove her sweatpants.

"Going commando are you?" Kyouka teased as she brought her face closer to Ochako's dripping snatch.

Her ear jacks wrapped around Ochako's legs and separated them, allowing her to dip her tongue into the brunette's pussy. Ochako mewled as Kyouka ate her out, making lewd noises as she dug around in her walls.

Kyouka was only licking her for a few minutes and Ochako was already whining and moaning the words 'I'm gonna cum' but that only encouraged her, and she doubled her efforts.

Soon, Ochako was crying out and spraying Kyouka's face with her juices, not that she particularly minded though. 

Kyouka slowly crawled up to Ochako's pleasure drunk face and kissed her once more, before pulling the cover over both of them and cuddling up to her new girlfriend.

**You're clear to continue reading small ones.**

All For One sighed, Dimitri's betrayal was... unexpected but not all that detrimental. The real problem was that Toshinori was much stronger than he had thought, and he knew he was still alive.

The door to his warehouse swung open and a dozen men carrying guns and dressed in black walked.

Behind them was a small elderly woman with long black hair, she wore a brown winter coat and a thick black skirt, as well as a pair of black heels.

"Madame Gao, a pleasure as always," All For One grumbled.

"Aiko Shigaraki," Gao greeted back.

"You know that's not my name anymore," All For One said. 

"I shall address you as I please," Gao smiled.

"Why are you here?"

"Your plan to attack the hero school failed. Quite miserably I might add," Gao answered.

"That's none of your business. Our deal is simple, you give me thirty percent of your drug profit, and I keep the cops off of you, but you do _not_ butt into what I'm doing, and I do the same for you," All For One growled, his temper was flaring.

"I'd suggest you watch your tone with me, Aiko," Gao's smile fell.

"I'd say the same to you. Y'know I could take all of you out right now, take your very profitable drug business for myself. In fact— URK!" All For One was stopped in his tracks, he couldn't breath, it was like all the oxygen had been sucked out of him.

"What you feel is your trachea being crushed like an aluminum can," Gao explained. All For One tried to scream but he couldn't, suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his chest, "And that was your ribs breaking, and puncturing through your lungs."

The dozen men behind her stepped up and aimed their guns to All For One, and with a nod from Gao, they each fired a round into his skull.

"Madame, if you don't mind me asking, what are we gonna do about Tomura, isn't this guy his mentor or something?" One of the thugs asked.

"Not at all." Gao took a large metal syringe and stuck it into All For One's neck, removing some of his blood, "Tomura cares not for Aiko, but the power he brings, if I give that power to him. He'll be in our pocket," Gao explained.

"An excellent plan, Madame."

**\-- New York, 10:47 AM**

Frank sighed as he heard the angry clicking of Dinah's heels approaching him, David and Curtis were sat to his left and his right respectively and they were all here with one person on their minds.

"What the hell Castle, Russo should be dead I saw his body in the goddamn morgue!" Dinah yelled.

"Yeah so did I, Madani. But Bill seems to have a special way of pulling himself out of hell," Frank said.

"M-my question is, how could somebody possibly pull themselves back from five gunshots to the chest," David asked, getting everyone to look at him, "All I'm saying is what if we're not dealing with Billy Russo here."

"So what, some guy just makes a perfect replica of Bill's mask?"! Curtis asked rhetorically.

"Anything's possible. Especially now, you've got guys flying around in iron suits and apparently there's some guy over in Harlem that's bullet proof," David shrugged.

"Well, either way we have to find out." Frank stood up and walked over to Dinah, "I'm gonna need to take a trip to Japan, you comin'?"

"Somebody has to keep you in check," Dinah grumbled.

"Curtis?"

Curtis sighed, "Nah, I'm sitting out this time. I'm on thin enough ice with Delia."

"I'll go," David said.

"No, you have a family Lieberman, you shouldn't go," Frank told him.

"A family that you helped me get back, Frank. I'm in your debt man, I'm helping you here whether you want it or not," David said.

"So when do we leave?" Dinah asked.

"We're not ready to leave yet. Everytime I try to kill Russo on my own I fail, so maybe this time." Frank pulled out a photo of a man dressed in a red and black devil suit, "I get some extra help."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas folks. I have a couple things to get through before we close. Number one: Izuku's scars look like that of the show, there was a hole in the eye area of the mask. Number two: I know that smut probably doesn't fit in this chapter...but, I can do what I want. Number three: the next few chapters are gonna be like, almost all filler but that's not really an issue in my eyes. Number four: Kaen and Kesseki are twenty-two, not thirty-two, all of the quirkless are within their twenties, aside from Izuku who's eighteen. And a huge thanks to Herakles who helped me write the Nomu fight scene, he's a great author and you should check him out.
> 
> Now with that out of the way, if you want to talk to me about my fics more directly, here's a link to the two discord servers I lurk in the most:
> 
> Epsi's Hoard: https://discord.gg/amznhWGXbm
> 
> LoM: https://discord.gg/R9BU25t
> 
> That's it for now, Peace.


	9. Anxieties

Izuku groaned quietly as he woke up in his dark room, only dimly lit by the heat lamp in the corner over the cage for his snake.

Wait a minute.

This was not his apartment, he did not have a snake, nor did he have...were these sheets silk?!

Izuku gazed down at Setsuna, who was laying on his chest and smiling at him with half-lidded eyes.

"How long have you been watching me?"

"A few minutes. For a gun toting masked vigilante, you're surprisingly cute when you're asleep," Setsuna answered.

Izuku chuckled as Setsuna rolled off of him, letting him prop himself up on his arms, "You don't think your... friends are gonna be worried about you?"

"I told them I'd find my own way out, so they took off."

"How did they get out anyway?"

**\--**

Hound Dog stood at the wall that surrounded UA, scratching his head as he stared at the large wooden ramp set up a few feet away.

**\--**

"Not sure."

Setsuna sighed after a brief silence between them, "If- If we're gonna do this, then we need to set some ground rules for when you're here."

Izuku looked at her questioningly.

"When you're with me you're Izuku, my boyfriend, none of this Jigsaw shit. You're gonna leave your weapons, your overcoat, and your mask in that closet." Setsuna pointed over to a set of white doors about a foot from her bed.

"Well you don't have to worry about the last one," Izuku said, picking up his destroyed mask from the ground.

Setsuna stared at the mask for a few seconds before reaching over to her drawer and pulling out the original, handing it to Izuku.

"You kept this?" Izuku asked with bewilderment.

"Did you expect me to trash it?"

"...Thanks." Izuku shrugged off grabbed his overcoat that was laying on a chair and placed it in her closet, along with his mask, "I'll take it to Dimitri to get it reinforced."

"Is Dimitri…?" Setsuna trailed off, it still felt uncomfortable to talk about.

"Kinda. He makes all our gear, our outfits, our weapons. He's also our tech guy. That old Russian's come in real handy lately," Izuku chuckled.

"Moving on. When you left, you really hurt me, so to make up for it you're going to do whatever I say if you're with me." Setsuna walked up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, "If I ask for a kiss, I'm gonna get a kiss. If I tell you to cuddle me, you're going to cuddle me. Understand?"

"I can't tell if you're being serious or trying to lighten the mood," Izuku smiled.

"Both. Come on, let's go make something to eat, I'm hungry," Setsuna said as she placed her lips against his cheek.

Izuku followed behind Setsuna, so she couldn't see the dopey smile that wormed its way onto his face. It had been so long since he felt like this, and he knew that only Setsuna could do this to him.

The two had just got to the kitchen when they ran into the yellow haired boy he met yesterday, and another boy with spiky black hair kept out of his face by a bandana.

"I'm tellin' you man, I was face to face with two of those vigilante guys yesterday, and I'm positive both of them were quirkless," Denki told the other boy.

"I'm not saying I don't believe you, I'm just skeptic— woah!" The black haired boy stopped midway through his sentence as he saw Izuku's face, Denki also jumped back a bit.

"Awase, Kaminari, this is my boyfriend Izuku," Setsuna explained.

"Dude, I am so sorry," Yosetsu apologized.

"It's fine, I get it a lot," Izuku chuckled.

"That's no excuse, that was really uncalled for," Denki chimed in.

"Trust me, it's fine."

Yosetsu and Denki were about to leave when the latter turned around and stared at Izuku skeptically, "Have we met before?"

"Not to my knowledge," Izuku answered, slightly panicked.

"Hmm, must be my mind playing tricks on me," Denki shrugged, and the two went back upstairs.

"That was close," Setsuna sighed.

"Definitely. Now come on, breakfast isn't going to make itself."

A few minutes into cooking, another boy walked down into the kitchen, he was broad-shouldered, and his six arms were webbed together on either side. He also wore a dark blue face mask that covered everything under her nose.

After Setsuna introduced him as Mezou Shoji, he simply waved and went to the fridge to get a drink, which for some reason puzzled Izuku.

"I'm sorry but, uh, this doesn't bother you?" Izuku asked, gesturing to his face.

"Depends." Mezou pulled down his face mask, revealing his mouth that went all the way back to where his ears were, and the row of jagged teeth inside, "This doesn't bother you, does it?"

"...not in the slightest," Izuku answered.

"Then we don't have a problem," Mezou smiled as he pulled his mask back up.

Once Mezou left, Izuku turned to Setsuna and saw the pointed stare she was giving him.

"Ok I get it, big life lesson," Izuku rolled his eyes.

"I was just gonna tell you that the bacon's burning."

"Shit!"

They were almost finished cooking when another set of footsteps approached the kitchen. This time belonging to the purple-haired girl he had met yesterday, who was walking hand in hand with another brown-haired girl.

The second she saw their conjoined hands, Setsuna's face lit up with excitement, "Oh my god, are you two together now?!"

"A-as of last night yeah," Ochako blushed.

"Thank god, you know she's had a crush on you since at least the battle trial," Setsuna told Kyouka.

"Setsuna!"

"What?"

"Really?" Kyouka asked as she got just a little bit closer to the blushing girl, "Who's the guy?"

"My boyfriend. I invited him over last night after everything happened, I just...needed someone to comfort me," Setsuna lied.

"Are you sure we're allowed to do that?" Ochako asked.

"Yeah, we're allowed visitors. Although, maybe they're not allowed to stay the night," Setsuna realized.

"You should probably check with Nezu later," Kyouka said.

"Need anything?" Izuku asked.

Kyouka shook her head, "Nah, I just left my phone down here last night." She grabbed the device and left with a wave, Ochako following right behind her.

Once they were out of hearing distance, Izuku and Setsuna turned to each other and in unison said, "Those two are fucking."

They had finally finished eating and we're about to head upstairs when Izuku came face to face with Katsuki, who froze upon seeing him.

"Midoriya."

Setsuna looked between the both of them and sighed, "I'll be in my room," she whispered before leaving.

After several moments of silence, Izuku spoke up, "Midoriya? Not Izuku or Deku?"

"Don't think I can ever call you either of those."

Izuku closed his eyes and let out a long drawn out sigh, when he opened them again, a second Katsuki was standing right beside the original, although instead of a solemn look, this one was glaring at him with malice.

"I'm sorry, for everything. Back then— I— my own ego was too big for my goddamn head."

"You know deep down that she hates you."

"There is nothing I can ever do, to make you forgive me, I know this."

"She pities you, and the second you leave she'll shut you out forever."

"But there's a difference between forgiveness and accepting an apology. Although to be honest I'm not even sure I deserve the latter." 

"She wishes you had died when you jumped out of that window!"

"But just know, that I regret everything I did, and if I could take it all back, I would."

Both Katsuki's fell silent, and for a few minutes, that's the way it stayed.

"You know, when I was out, I had the strangest dream. I met a man named Billy Russo and he told me that if I never stood up for myself, I was bound to be tortured. And I agree with him," Izuku said.

"You shouldn't have had to stick up for yourself in the first place," Katsuki whispered.

"But I'm doing it now."

A few seconds of silence felt like hours, to both of them.

"You don't get any more control over my life, you don't get any more control over me," Izuku said to both Katsuki's.

"What did you just say?"

"Good, cause I don't want it."

Izuku began to walk away as the fake Katsuki began to fade into nothing, it screamed and lunged for Izuku, but never made it. The fake Katsuki dissipated into the thin air, and for the first time since that fateful day, Izuku's mind was truly clear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have officially reached the fluff line people, for a while there is going to be a lot less action and angst, with a few exceptions here and there. Discord links.
> 
> The Hoard: https://discord.gg/amznhWGXbm
> 
> LoM: https://discord.gg/R9BU25t
> 
> That's it for now, Peace.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone, I know that this story has gone pretty fast but I have literally no Idea as to how I would stretch it further. That's all for now, Peace.


End file.
